FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.17.21

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39.  Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 7:04 PM, for 12h 03m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 14.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM.

 On this day in 1776, the British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Dan Mangan reports Putin pushed Biden misinformation to Trump allies and media in 2020 election, U.S. says:

Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, authorized intelligence assets to promote misinformation during the 2020 election cycle about Joe Biden through U.S. media and people close to then-President Donald Trump to try to boost Trump’s reelection chances, a U.S. intelligence report said.

In particular, the declassified report, released Tuesday, said that Putin “had purview over the activities of Adriy Derkach, a Ukrainian legislator who played a prominent role in Russia’s election influence activities.”

Derkach, who has ties to Russian intelligence, is known to have met with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who for months promoted discredited allegations against Biden, now president, and his son Hunter Biden.

The findings are outlined as the second “key judgment” of the report, “Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections,” by the National Intelligence Council.

“A key element of Moscow’s strategy this election cycle was its use of people linked to Russian intelligence to launder influence narratives including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden through US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration,” the report said.

See Foreign Threats to the U.S. 2020 Federal Elections.

Bill Glauber and Daniel Bice report Milwaukee County Judge Brett Blomme arrested, faces charges of possession of child pornography:

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme was arrested Tuesday on tentative charges of possession of child pornography, the state Department of Justice announced.

Blomme, 38, was taken into custody by special agents with the state Division of Criminal Investigation “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement.

Criminal charges are expected to be filed against Blomme on Wednesday. He was arrested in Dane County.

A 44-page search warrant filed Friday by a DCI special agent said investigators found Blomme, using the name “dommasterbb,” uploaded 27 videos and images containing child pornography. Two of the files were uploaded at a Milwaukee County government building, the search warrant said.

 Abigail Becker reports Clerks begin mailing absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s fifth statewide pandemic election:

Heading into Wisconsin’s fifth statewide pandemic election, local clerks are continuing to administer elections with precautions in place to keep voters and workers safe.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said in an email that clerks have adjusted to the “new normal” and can handle the April 6 general election safely.

“Following safety protocols has been effective and we all have what we need,” McDonell said. “Certainly clerks are very much looking forward to this pandemic ending.”

Iceland on high alert for a possible volcanic eruption following thousands of tremors:

Business, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, State Capitalism, State Government

After Years of Promises, Foxconn Will Think of Something…by July

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Years of claims, promises, declarations, announcements (and private homes destroyed along the way), and yet Foxconn still needs a bit of time to think of something to make. Just give ‘em a sec, they come up with something by July:

Liu said that the company will announce what it will make in Wisconsin before July. It could be electric cars, or something else, he said.

….

The original plan for the facility when construction started in 2018 was to make large screens. The state agreed to pay Foxconn for up to $2.85 billion in state money for a project that called for a promised 13,000 jobs. That hasn’t happened, and the state and company are renegotiating the agreement.

Foxconn is about as credible as Mr. Conroy, who’s simply not sure how that wire got in his ear…

For a quick perspective on Foxconn’s prospects for electric cars, see a comment from Joe posted earlier here at FREE WHITEWATER.

Previously: 10 Key Articles About Foxconn, Foxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers,  Foxconn Destroys Single-Family Homes, Foxconn Devours Tens of Millions from State’s Road Repair Budget, The Man Behind the Foxconn Project, A Sham News Story on Foxconn, Another Pig at the Trough, Even Foxconn’s Projections Show a Vulnerable (Replaceable) Workforce, Foxconn in Wisconsin: Not So High Tech After All, Foxconn’s Ambition is Automation, While Appeasing the Politically Ambitious, Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace Conditions, Foxconn’s Bait & Switch, Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs, The Next Guest Speaker, Trump, Ryan, and Walker Want to Seize Wisconsin Homes to Build Foxconn Plant, Foxconn Deal Melts Away, “Later This Year,” Foxconn’s Secret Deal with UW-Madison, Foxconn’s Predatory Reliance on Eminent Domain, Foxconn: Failure & Fraud, Foxconn Roundup: Desperately Ill Edition,  Foxconn Roundup: Indiana Layoffs & Automation Everywhere, Foxconn Roundup: Outside Work and Local Land, Foxconn Couldn’t Even Meet Its Low First-Year Goal, Foxconn Talks of Folding Wisconsin Manufacturing Plans, WISGOP Assembly Speaker Vos Hopes You’re Stupid, Lost Homes and Land, All Over a Foxconn Fantasy, Laughable Spin as Industrial Policy, Foxconn: The ‘State Visit Project,’ ‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn,’ Foxconn: When the Going Gets Tough…, The Amazon-New York Deal, Like the Foxconn Deal, Was Bad Policy, Foxconn Roundup, Foxconn: The Roads to Nowhere, Foxconn: Evidence of Bad Policy Judgment, Foxconn: Behind Those Headlines, Foxconn: On Shaky Ground, Literally, Foxconn: Heckuva Supply Chain They Have There…, Foxconn: Still Empty, and the Chairman of the Board Needs a Nap, Foxconn: Cleanup on Aisle 4, Foxconn: The Closer One Gets, The Worse It Is, Foxconn Confirm Gov. Evers’s Claim of a Renegotiation Discussion, America’s Best Know Better, Despite Denials, Foxconn’s Empty Buildings Are Still Empty, Right on Schedule – A Foxconn Delay, Foxconn: Reality as a (Predictable) Disappointment, Town Residents Claim Trump’s Foxconn Factory Deal Failed Them, Foxconn: Independent Study Confirms Project is Beyond Repair, It Shouldn’t, Foxconn: Wrecking Ordinary Lives for Nothing, Hey, Wisconsin, How About an Airport-Coffee Robot?, Be Patient, UW-Madison: Only $99,300,000.00 to Go!, Foxconn: First In, Now Out, Foxconn on the Same Day: Yes…um, just kidding, we mean no, Foxconn: ‘Innovation Centers’ Gone in a Puff of Smoke, Foxconn: Worse Than Nothing, Foxconn: State of Wisconsin Demands Accountability, Foreign Corporation Stalls, Foxconn Notices the Noticeable, Journal Sentinel’s Rick Romell Reports the Obvious about Foxconn Project, Foxconn’s ‘Innovation’ Centers: Still Empty a Year Later, Foxconn & UW-Madison: Two Years and Less Than One Percent Later…, Accountability Comes Calling at Foxconn, and Highlight’s from The Verge’s Foxconn Assessment.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.16.21

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 46.  Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 7:03 PM, for 12h 00m 41s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:45 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM. 

 On this day in 1935, Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Elizabeth Dwoskin reports Massive Facebook study on users’ doubt in vaccines finds a small group appears to play a big role in pushing the skepticism (‘Internal study finds a QAnon connection and that content that doesn’t break the rules may be causing ‘substantial’ harm’):

While Facebook has banned outright false and misleading statements about coronavirus vaccines since December, a huge realm of expression about vaccines sits in a gray area. One example could be comments by someone expressing concern about side effects that are more severe than expected. Those comments could be both important for fostering meaningful conversation and potentially bubbling up unknown information to health authorities — but at the same time they may contribute to vaccine hesitancy by playing upon people’s fears.

….

The company’s data scientists divided the company’s U.S. users, groups and pages into 638 population segments to explore which types of groups hold vaccine hesitant beliefs. The document did not identify how Facebook defined a segment or grouped communities, but noted that the segments could be at least 3 million people.

Some of the early findings are notable: Just 10 out of the 638 population segments contained 50 percent of all vaccine hesitancy content on the platform. And in the population segment with the most vaccine hesitancy, just 111 users contributed half of all vaccine hesitant content.

Miranda Bryant and Martin Pengelly report FBI arrests two men for ‘bear spray’ assault on Capitol officer who later died:

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI on Sunday and expected to appear in federal court on Monday.

They were charged with assaulting Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, thought to be bear spray, which Khater was allegedly seen discharging into the officer’s face in footage of the riot. It is not yet known if it caused Sicknick’s death.

Sicknick, 42, was one of five people to die as a direct result of the assault, which Donald Trump incited when he told supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause. The officer died in hospital on 7 January. A police statement said he “was injured while physically engaging with protesters” and “returned to his division office and collapsed”.

 Mitchell Schmidt reports Republican mailer for state Senate candidate implies nonexistent State Journal endorsement:

A Republican Party campaign mailer for a state Senate candidate includes altered versions of statements the Republican made to the Wisconsin State Journal, making it seem as if the candidate were endorsed by the newspaper.

The mailer supporting Rep. John Jagler, R-Watertown, includes two of Jagler’s responses to a candidate questionnaire that was published last month ahead of the Feb. 16 primary. The statements in the mailer appear under the State Journal logo, but change personal pronouns “I” and “We” to Jagler’s name, making the quotes seem like they came from the newspaper, rather than from Jagler himself.

Giraffe calf Kendi makes debut at Indianapolis Zoo:

City, Development, Janesville, Local Government, Politics, Special Interests

A Janesville, Wisconsin Resident on His Town’s Politics (with Similarities to Whitewater)

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Over at the Real Janesville™ Twitter feed, a resident of that nearby city offers observations on his city’s politics. In a tweet stream from 3.11.21, he describes the election scene in Janesville.

First the feed, then a few remarks of mine on Whitewater.

Advice for Janesville city council candidates: Don’t think you’re an agent for change. You’re not. If elected you will be expected to approve the city’s agenda and directives. You can suggest minor adjustments but most decisions are unanimous.

2) In our at-large leaderless system, the agenda at city hall is not yours or the people who elected you. It doesn’t matter whether we have 7 council members or 99, Janesville may as well have just one council member calling the shots.

3) If there is nothing or little you would do differently than past council issues and decisions, chances are you’re running to “contribute and do your part.” #StatusQuo

4) Any candidate who disagrees with the city’s current direction and policies would have to vote negative on nearly every request. That, and attempting to open insider conversations would be seen as divisive and an act of hostility.

5) Promoting issues important to your particular neighborhood, not on the agenda or that run counter to city directives would also be seen as self-serving and not in the city’s interests. You will be scolded and shut out.

6) Candidates in particular who win endorsements from local special interest groups tied into economic development such as downtown, realtors, chambers and unions are agents for the status quo. None want change. Same old. Same old.

Although Janesville’s city council members are all elected at-large (unlike the mixture of at-large and district elections in Whitewater), that difference isn’t significant in Whitewater when overall participation in government is low in any event. Large parts of Whitewater’s population pay little attention to the city’s electoral politics.

Different factions within the city argue year after year over who’s a real resident, a permanent resident, or a long-term resident, etc. (Old Whitewater is seldom creative except in ways to distinguish between itself and student-age residents.)

Running to “contribute and do your part” is a version of Whitewater’s adult in the room standard, where candidates tout their own maturity despite maturity being only a minimal condition of effective adult participation in society. Making a virtue of the ordinary isn’t praiseworthy, but candidates who think of themselves this way imagine they’re paying themselves a compliment.

The endorsements of development men, in Whitewater or Janesville, are probably the only notable feature of local politics. These men expect nothing but the same, and candidates come and go based on their willingness to support redirecting public money to favored business interests, through crude manipulation of public institutions to private ends. Some of them will, in moments of candor, admit that decades in support of redistribution of public money to private ends have left Whitewater no better than a low-income community.

They will, of course, reach out to self-identifying moderates, liberals, or classical conservatives if those candidates will sacrifice their own beliefs to support a right-of-center business welfare policy.

Indeed, there will often be one or two needy moderates or liberals who’ll align themselves against principle for the sake of developers’ support toward a spot on city council.

These men have two lines, used respectively with newcomers or incumbents:

“Psst, you. How’d you like a spot in government? It’s yours, if you’ll promise us only one thing…”

or

“Hey, haven’t we been good to you? Now, how about you be good to us? It’d be a shame if one of our friends ran against you in a primary…”

Preoccupation with particulars obscures enduring, general trends (in Janesville, Whitewater, or myriad other places).

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.15.21

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with snow this afternoon, and a high of 32.  Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 7:02 PM, for 11h 57m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission is scheduled to meet via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Unified School District Board is scheduled to meet via audiovisual conferencing in closed session at 6:15 PM and open session at 7 PM. 

 On this day in 1783, in an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’état never takes place.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Rich Kremer reports Tech Schools See Big Enrollment Declines (‘Pandemic reduces enrollment nationally 10%, report says. State schools see similar trend’):

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports that at public, two-year community and technical colleges, enrollment fell this spring by 9.5 percent compared to spring of 2020. Undergraduate enrollment at public four-year universities dropped by 3.3 percent, and at non-profit, private universities, enrollment fell by 2 percent. The report is based on preliminary data from 43 percent of colleges and universities in the U.S.

….

The national trend tracks with what administrators at some Wisconsin technical colleges are seeing. Laura Bray, Milwaukee Area Technical College vice president for college advancement, told WPR’s “The Morning Show” that they’re seeing fewer students as the pandemic continues.

“In terms of enrollment and where we’re at, we have already projected to a decline of 9,100, what we call FTE or full time equivalent students,” said Bray. “And we do expect to fall short of that for this year.”

In an email sent to WPR, MATC spokesperson Ginny Gnadt said the projected 9,100 students this year works out to a 9-percent drop in enrollment compared to the 2019-2020 school year.

Western Technical College President Roger Stanford told WPR he estimates enrollment is down by around 15 percent compared to last spring. Stanford says fewer students have been able to stay in school during the pandemic.

 Molly Beck and Eric Litke report Why Milwaukee ranks near the top of U.S. cities receiving federal stimulus dollars:

Cities received allocations based on a formula that incorporates how population growth compares to other cities of similar size, poverty rates and the amount of overcrowded housing. Funding for counties was determined largely by population and unemployment rates were a factor in how much state governments received.

About a quarter of Milwaukee’s population is considered to be living in poverty and about 35% of working-age residents are not in the labor force, according to 2019 U.S. Census data.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee receives the most — at $406 million. Milwaukee County will receive $183 million, Dane County $106 million, Waukesha County $78 million, Brown County $51 million, Madison $49 million and $47 million for Racine.

 Amy Brittain and Josh Dawsey report New York’s vaccine czar called county officials to gauge their loyalty to Cuomo amid sexual harassment investigation:

New York’s “vaccine czar” — a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — phoned county officials in the past two weeks in attempts to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation, according to multiple officials.

One Democratic county executive was so unsettled by the outreach from Larry Schwartz, head of the state’s vaccine rollout, that the executive on Friday filed notice of an impending ethics complaint with the public integrity unit of the state attorney general’s office, the official told The Washington Post. The executive feared the county’s vaccine supply could suffer if Schwartz was not pleased with the executive’s response to his questions about support of the governor.

 Patrol Ship Hits Massive Waves Near Antarctica:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.14.21

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 7:01 PM, for 11h 54m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 2017, a naming ceremony for the chemical element nihonium takes place in Tokyo, with then Crown Prince Naruhito in attendance.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Shane Goldmacher writes The Imperious Rise and Accelerating Fall of Andrew Cuomo:

Mr. Cuomo’s governorship is imperiled, as he faces allegations of groping, sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior made by six women; an independent investigation into those accusations; an impeachment inquiry by state legislators; a federal investigation into his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic; and collapsing support from leaders in his own party.

Yet for all of that, Mr. Cuomo is now furiously plotting a path to salvage his job, his legacy and even a potential fourth-term re-election run in 2022, according to Democrats familiar with his thinking. In defiant remarks on Friday, Mr. Cuomo accused Democratic leaders of “playing politics” by calling for him to resign and demanded they wait for the “facts” as he impugned the motives of the women who have come forward.

“A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons,” Mr. Cuomo said, denying he ever sexually harassed anyone.

Be it his self-regard, his disdain for fellow Democrats or his imperious demeanor, Mr. Cuomo alienated allies and enemies alike on his way up in politics, and now finds himself sliding from hero-level worship to pariah-like status with the kind of astonishing speed that only the friendless suffer. It is a downfall foretold in a decade-long reign of ruthlessness and governance by brute force, according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers, elected officials, current and past Cuomo administration officials, political activists and strategists in the state.

 David Smith reports Trump’s Washington hotel echoes to silence of missing MAGA crowd:

The hotel in Washington made just $15.1m in revenue last year, a drop of more than 60% from the year before. Then came Trump’s election loss and impeachment for inciting a deadly insurrection a short distance away at the US Capitol on 6 January, inflicting huge reputational damage.

….

Kevin Chaffee, senior editor of Washington Life magazine, said: “The Trump hotel has been struggling for quite a while and, without him being there, people don’t need to curry favour by staying there. Some embassies had their events there and they don’t need to do that now.”

 The Guardian reports Lara Trump-linked dog rescue charity spent $2m on Trump properties:

A dog rescue charity that has links to Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has spent almost $2m at Trump properties in the last seven years, according to US media reports.

While other companies and groups have distanced themselves from the Trumps since the 6 January attack on the capital, the Florida-based Big Dog Ranch Rescue is expected to spend another $225,000 at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club for an event this weekend, according to a permit filed with the town of Palm Beach, which was reported by HuffPost.

The former president has been living in the club full time since leaving the White House in January following his election defeat.

HuffPost reported that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings show that the charity has spent as much as $1,883,160 on fundraising costs for events at Mar-a-Lago and a nearby Trump golf course since 2014. Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, has been a chairwoman for charity events since 2018.

How This Artist Made $69 Million Selling Digital Art With NFTs [Non-Fungible Tokens]:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.13.21

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 56.  Sunrise is 6:07 AM and sunset 5:59 PM, for 11h 52m 01s of daytime.  The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1862, the Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves is passed by the United States Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ron Johnson says Capitol attackers ‘love this country’ but he would have felt unsafe if Black Lives Matter stormed building instead:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is facing accusations of racism after saying the supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January didn’t worry him but that he might have been concerned if they had been supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I knew those were people who love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, so I wasn’t concerned,” Johnson said about the predominantly white crowd that marched to the U.S. Capitol to overturn a presidential election and triggered an assault that left five people dead, 140 police officers injured and windows smashed.

“Now, had the tables been turned, and Joe — this is going to get me in trouble — had the tables been turned and President Trump won the election and tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa, I might have been a little concerned,” Johnson said during an interview with syndicated radio show host Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo.

“What, white people love this country and Black people don’t? That’s exactly what he’s saying,” Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat from Milwaukee who is Black, said.

Johnson, who is not related to Ron Johnson, said it wasn’t Black Lives Matter protesters who triggered an insurrection that left five people dead, including a police officer.

 The Associated Press reports Green Bay mayor calls GOP hearing on election process ‘Stalinist show trial’:

Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said a legislative committee hearing attended only by Republicans that featured testimony from invited conservative critics of how his city ran the November election was a “Stalinist show trial and a three-ring circus.”

Genrich told WLUK-TV on Thursday that neither he nor any city employees were invited to the Assembly Campaign and Elections hearing at the state Capitol on Wednesday. No one from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which is charged with running elections, was invited to testify either.

Instead, a conservative attorney who sued to block Green Bay from being awarded grant money to help run the election, the Republican former county clerk and a Republican state representative all testified.

 Timothy Bella reports Trump requests a mail-in ballot after months of falsely crying ‘fraud’ on mail-in ballots:

Former president Donald Trump recently requested a mail-in ballot for a municipal election in South Florida, according to Palm Beach County records, voting again by mail despite months of repeatedly promoting false claims of election fraud without evidence.

Records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, show that a mail-in ballot for the town’s local election this week was requested on Friday for the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Palm Beach.

 One-take drone video of Minnesota bowling alley goes viral:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bigotry, Culture, Education, Law

Responsibility for Students, Patients, or Clients

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Yesterday, Georgetown Law fired an adjunct law professor after publication of a Zoom call in which she deprecated the abilities of many of her Black law students. See Georgetown Law professor terminated after ‘reprehensible’ comments about Black students.  

Here’s the most objectionable part of her remarks from the video call:

“I hate to say this. I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks,” Sellers said in the video. “Happens almost every semester. And it’s like, ‘Oh, come on.’ You get some really good ones, but there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.”

Georgetown was right to fire her. Her statement is racist to its core: both false in its assessment of Black abilities and prejudiced (literally) in its bias against year-after-year of Black law students under her instruction.

It makes sense to address Prof. Sandra Sellers’s remarks, primarily, as racial bias.

There is, however, a second way in which she proves herself unfit to teach: she summarily blames her students for her own failure to teach effectively. If all these students were the same race and ethnicity as Sellers, then she would still be unworthy of her teaching position. 

The first place one should look after student failure is to a teacher. The first place one should look after teaching failure is to a principal, department chair, or dean. The first place one should look after failure of a principal, department chair, or dean is to a superintendent or university president. The first place to look after the failure of a superintendent or university president is to a school board or board of regents.

Note well: The first place to look, not the only place to look.

Sellers showed no self-reflection whatever on her teaching abilities, and merely blamed others (by race, of all things).

No, and no again.

While the law is not easy (no matter how often laypeople assume it is), law can be understood by any student at Georgetown if taught properly. Again, without doubt in my mind: a dedicated professor would – and should – be able to make proper lawyers out of everyone in the Georgetown class regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender.

Professionals should, by definition, be held to a professional standard of performance. It’s an easy pose for poor teachers to blame reflexively their students, poor doctors to blame reflexively their patients, or poor lawyers to blame reflexively their clients.

Along the same lines, it is as easy, and as unworthy, for poor professionals to support each other while blaming their students, patients, or clients.

It may be true that, here and there, a student, patient, or client goes wrong, somehow. In response, a worthy professional first looks to himself or herself for the cause of that unfortunate situation. Only after a thorough self-examination does a professional look to others as possible causes of his or her professional failings. (Of that self-examination: it should be an effort that he or she can describe in detail, listing each step he or she made. It’s not enough to say one ‘tried’; one should be able to describe point-by-point what one did in pursuit of one’s goal.)

No one is drafted into a profession – one chooses that role. One should meet the demands of the profession or find something less demanding.

There are many who who are disabled or disadvantaged, and who have never had even the chance to assume a professional role. They might have loved that chance, but through no fault of their own those opportunities never came. Those of us who have had better fortune owe far more than reflexive blame-shifting and excuse-marking.

Prof. Sandra Sellers was unfit for more than one reason.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: A Study on Cats & Milk Prebiotics

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Lauren Quinn reports Milk prebiotics are the cat’s meow, research shows:

If you haven’t been the parent or caregiver of an infant in recent years, you’d be forgiven for missing the human milk oligosaccharide trend in infant formulas. These complex carbohydrate supplements mimic human breast milk and act like prebiotics, boosting beneficial microbes in babies’ guts.

Milk oligosaccharides aren’t just for humans, though; all mammals make them. And new University of Illinois research suggests milk oligosaccharides may be beneficial for cats and when added to pet diets.

….

In two separate studies, both published in the Journal of Animal Science, Swanson and his colleagues determined the safety, palatability, and digestibility of GNU100 [animal milk oligosaccharide-like product] in dogs and cats.

First, in vitro laboratory tests with cellular colonies showed no toxic effects or tendencies to cause cell mutation. There was no reason to expect toxicity, but the result satisfies one of the basic FDA requirements for inclusion of any new ingredient in pet foods.

Next, the researchers mixed GNU100 at 1% with a fat source and coated commercial dry diets for cats or dogs. As a control, fat-coated diets without GNU100 were also offered. When animals got to choose between the control and 1% bowls, they went crazy for the GNU100.

“In the cats, it was a huge preference. They ate nearly 18 times more food with GNU100 than the control food. We had just been hoping they wouldn’t reject it. You know, cats can be pretty finicky,” Swanson says. “When we got the data back it was like, wow, they really love that stuff! And the dogs did, too.”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.12.21

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 49.  Sunrise is 6:09 AM and sunset 5:58 PM, for 11h 49m 05s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 0.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 2009, financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street’s history.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Mike Baker reports Seattle’s Virus Success Shows What Could Have Been:

One year later, the Seattle area has the lowest death rate of the 20 largest metropolitan regions in the country. If the rest of the United States had kept pace with Seattle, the nation could have avoided more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths.

During a year in which the White House downplayed the virus and other political leaders clashed over how to contain it, Seattle’s success illustrates the value of unified and timely strategies: Although the region’s public health experts and politicians grappled behind the scenes about how to best manage the virus, they came together to present a united front to the public. And the public largely complied.

“We could not afford to have mixed messages,” said Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s mayor.

The restrictions that have been in place off and on for the better part of a year have brought widespread disruption to lives and the economy. But as governors elsewhere have cited the economy as a reason to ease lockdowns, Seattle’s success showed that an alternative pathway was doable: Amid widespread economic turmoil, the state’s unemployment rate has been about average nationally, outperforming some places that have pressed ahead with wider reopenings, including Arizona and Texas.

David Leonhardt writes Follow-up: A Covid mystery:

In response to Monday’s newsletter about the mystery of the relatively low Covid death tolls in Africa and Asia, several researchers wrote to me to add a potential explanation that had not been on my list: obesity.

Countries with higher obesity rates have suffered more Covid deaths on average, as you can see in this chart that my colleague Lalena Fisher and I put together:

Obesity can cause multiple health problems, including making it harder to breathe, as Dr. David L. Katz told me, and oxygen deprivation has been a common Covid symptom. A paper by Dr. Jennifer Lighter of New York University and other researchers found that obesity increased the risk of hospitalization among Covid patients.

It’s a particularly intriguing possibility because it could help explain why Africa and Asia have suffered fewer deaths than not only high-income countries but also Latin American countries. Latin Americans, like Europeans and U.S. residents, are heavier on average than Africans or Asians.

Oliver Darcy reports Fox begs viewers not to tune away:

Meanwhile, Fox on Thursday night continued to make the case for why it should be referred to as a right-wing talk channel and not a news network. While Biden delivered his address, the network featured a box in the bottom corner of the screen showing Tucker Carlson’s live reactions.

And as Biden continued to speak, the network essentially begged viewers to stick around and not tune out for the night. “BIDEN SPEECH NEARLY FINISHED; TUCKER WILL RESPOND,” one on-screen banner promised. “TUCKER RESPONDS IN LESS THAN 60 SECONDS,” another read.

When Biden wrapped his address, Fox wasted no time commencing the Biden bashing. Carlson slammed Biden, telling the president, “How dare you tell us who we can spend the Fourth of July with.” Sean Hannity said Biden should “pick up the phone” and “call Mar-a-Lago” and “thank President Donald Trump.” Mark Levin said the speech was the “most disgusting, propagandistic speech that a demagogue, even a politician, has ever given.”

(One is reminded of Voltaire’s prayer: O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.)

The Rise Of Wind Power In The U.S.:

Boosterism, CDA, City, Culture, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, School District, That Which Paved the Way, University

Local Politics Hasn’t Been Merely ‘Local’ for Years

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Over at the Wisconsin Examiner, Henry Redman writes (with concern) that All politics is national (‘Candidates for local office are ignoring community issues, instead highlighting national culture wars’).

First, Redman’s case, then a few remarks.

Woodman [Kyle Woodman, a Republican running for Eau Claire’s city council] is part of a mostly conservative group of candidates for local office across the state who are forgoing the hyper-local issues that city council and school boards largely deal with — instead aligning themselves with controversial culture war topics and making appearances with some of the state’s most divisive conservative personalities.

This trend, the nationalization of state and local politics, has been occurring across the country as state parties have become more homogenous and local news has been overshadowed by national cable news and social media.

….

The nationalization of state and local politics is more than bringing a liberal or conservative sensibility to the city council — that’s how the system is designed. Instead, candidates highlight national wedge issues as a way to rile up their political base in the way that the local zoning code or street cleaning can’t.

I’ve long advocated a national perspective on local politics, as it brings higher standards than hyper-local boosterism’s sketchy studies, dodgy data, and third-rate analyses. There’s no reason for small towns to endure logical fallacies and conflicts of interest because a few men insist that crud is caviar.

Redman may be right – one needn’t challenge the point – that some races are now culture-war skirmishes.

It’s significant, however, that much of the supposed ‘localism’ in Whitewater, for example, has simply been the right-of-center policies of state capitalism, crony capitalism, special-interest pleading, and local regulatory capture posing as a neutral, default local politics. See Local ‘Apolitical’ Isn’t Apolitical and Never Was.

Across the state, too many leaders seem to believe that accepting venal policies is the price of holding office, while others seem to believe that this is the very purpose of politics.

Neither type produces fair or effective policies.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.11.21

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 52.  Sunrise is 6:11 AM and sunset 5:57 PM, for 11h 46m 09s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 3.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Rob Mentzer reports Marshfield Police Chief Charged with Sexual Assault Will Get $72K from City for Resignation:

The city of Marshfield last week struck a deal to pay its police chief $72,000 in a separation agreement as he faces sexual assault charges. At a meeting Tuesday night, members of the public sounded off on a conflict between the city’s mayor and its Fire and Police Commission that has the mayor facing removal hearings.

Chief Rick Gramza submitted his resignation to the city Thursday, just days before Police Commission hearings on his behavior were set to begin. Gramza is charged with sexually assaulting a female officer he supervised, first as a lieutenant and later as chief. A judge last month dismissed related charges of misconduct in office.

The police chief’s resignation is part of broader turbulence in the central Wisconsin city of about 18,000 people, which includes a complaint against Mayor Bob McManus that stems from a conflict with the Fire and Police Commission. At the Common Council meeting Tuesday, members of the public blasted the commission, which some in the community perceive as having protected Gramza while moving against McManus.

Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman report Trump, Hungry for Power, Tries to Wrestle Away G.O.P. Fund-Raising:

It was a familiar play by Donald J. Trump: lashing out at his enemies and trying to raise money from it.

The former president this week escalated a standoff over the Republican Party’s financial future, blasting party leaders and urging his backers to send donations to his new political action committee — not to the institutional groups that traditionally control the G.O.P.’s coffers.

“No more money for RINOS,” he said in a statement released on Monday by his bare-bones post-presidential office, referring to Republicans In Name Only. He directed donors to his own website instead.

The aggressive move against his own party is the latest sign that Mr. Trump is trying to wrest control of the low-dollar online fund-raising juggernaut he helped create, diverting it from Republican fund-raising groups toward his own committee, which has virtually no restrictions on how the money can be spent.

 Russ Choma writes Trump Has Gone to War With the GOP Over His Fundraising Brand. He Will Lose:

“The committee [Republican National Committee] has every right to refer to public figures, that is unambiguously true, individuals and entities engaging in political speech can talk about people, reference people, quote people,” says Alexandra J. Roberts, a law professor who teaches trademark law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. “If they want to refer to Trump’s policies, Trump’s supporters—that’s always fine, well within the sphere of the First Amendment.”

The RNC itself did not seem particularly concerned about the letter, sending out a slew of Trump-heavy fundraising pitches in the days since. One missive was an email encouraging recipients to send a “virtual thank you” to Trump—an expression of gratitude that required making a donation to the RNC. As long as the RNC—or any other political fundraising committee—sends messages along that line, which clearly exploit a recipient’s potential affection for Trump, but don’t make any representations that Trump is involved with the effort or is endorsing anything, there’s not much he can do, Roberts says.

Scientists discover glow-in-the-dark sharks off New Zealand:

CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Regulatory Capture

Texas (But Not Only Texas): Regulatory Capture

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Regulatory capture is a simple concept: it applies when regulatory agencies become dominated by the industries or interests they are by law required to regulate. These agencies begin to act to benefit particular incumbent firms or people in the industry they are supposed to be overseeing. The concept is also sometimes called agency capture or state capture. (There are distinctions between these terms, but they all describe the same corruption of a public institution’s defined role under law.)

There have been many tragedies from the failures of Texas’s energy market, and more than one reason for those failures (e.g., deregulation, a grid confined only to Texas, inferior leaders at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas). These failures caused illness, loss of life, and property damage across Texas.

There was, however, another cause, as Colby Galliher, Kelsey Landau, and Julia Bourkland explain in Why Texas Has Catastrophic Blackouts:

Texas policymakers with longstanding financial and lobbying relationships to the industry scapegoated renewable energy during and after last month’s storm. In the first days of the crisis, Abbott went on Fox News and blamed the blackouts on wind energy while making broad attacks on the Green New Deal. Cruz was quick to blame wind energy as well (after he returned from his aborted Cancún vacation). In reality, wind power makes up just 23% of Texas’ annual electricity generation. At the time of last month’s storm, wind generated just 7% of the state’s total electricity, with the power outages almost entirely the result of natural gas-related failures. And the Green New Deal is an unrealized legislative proposal with little relevance to last month’s storm or Texas’ existing power sector.

Keeping in mind the longstanding influence of the oil and gas industry over these officials and their rhetoric, their deflections are easy to understand. Even after ERCOT publicly stated that the brunt of the state’s electricity woes were due to the failure of unwinterized natural gas plants, Texas figures (except for Abbott) who had erroneously blamed the state’s burgeoning renewables industry declined to correct their remarks. Beyond encapsulating their oil and gas industry benefactors’ affinity for deregulation, this refusal to place blame where it is due—and legislate accordingly—parallels the climate denialism propagated by its beneficiaries in the Republican Party.

The extent to which the oil and gas industry shapes Texas’ electricity market borders on regulatory and state capture. This dynamic was clear enough in the wake of the 2011 “once-in-a-lifetime” storm that caused major power outages; ten years later, another once-in-a-lifetime storm hit the state. In both instances, state lawmakers have seemingly refused to meaningfully address the fossil fuel industry’s grip on policy and regulation, choosing to proceed with deregulation despite the higher electricity prices and vulnerability to extreme weather. As the climate crisis worsens, such weather phenomena will likely become increasingly more common. If Texas policymakers fail to disentangle their interests and those of the Texas electrical grid from the fossil fuel industry—and if citizens are not fully empowered to hold them accountable for doing so—2021 will not be the last time that Texans are left in the cold and the dark.

So, why would a blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin write about regulatory capture in Texas?

Because regulatory capture exits in many places, and far closer than Texas.