This Tuesday, December 10th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of three classic television shows (during a program of two hours in length) @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
“Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a Honeymooners version of “The Gift of the Magi,” originally telecast live in black-and-white on December 24, 1955.
“An Old Fashioned Christmas,” telecast December 21, 1966, in color: Oliver Wendell Douglas shocks Hooterville by chopping down a real tree for Christmas.
“The Johnny Cash Christmas Special” telecast November 30, 1977, featuring June Carter Cash, The Statler Brothers, Roy Clark, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Taped at The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.
Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers a high of forty-three. Sunrise is 7:13 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 07m 30s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
One of the things I have been most struck by in my conversations with Christian conservatives is how moral concern has given way to moral panic. It distorts their perceptions about the very real progress that has been made while causing feelings of deep insecurity and fear, despite “fear not” being one of the most frequently repeated commands in the Bible.
Many Christians have become invested in a dark narrative. As a friend of mine puts it: “They seem to have some kind of psychological craving for apocalyptic fear. I wonder if walking it back is even possible.”
Whether these Christians will be able to walk back or not, the effects have been injurious. This apocalyptic moral mind-set has led to an alliance with a shockingly unethical figure, who embodies a mobster’s mentality and an anti-Christian ethic. Mr. Trump, a skilled demagogue, has taken full advantage of this. There appears to be almost nothing he can say or do to break the bond that has developed, and virtually nothing that many of his Christian supporters will not excuse.
See also Wehner’s The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity (“evangelical Christians should acknowledge the profound damage that’s being done to their movement by its braided political relationship—its love affair, to bring us back to the words of Ralph Reed—with a president who is an ethical and moral wreck.”)
(Wehner’s two articles seem contradictory – on one hand doomsayers, on the other hand a deepening crisis – but are easily reconciled: he considers general trends as relatively positive, but his fellow evangelicals’ particular political support for Trump as destructive to evangelicalism. Both are possible. I’m not of a conservative evangelical denomination, but Wehner’s assessment seems sound.)
The triumph of ad hominem arguments on the Trump right also has a deeper and darker meaning. Fox News is no longer content to spout pro-Trump propaganda. It must destroy Trump’s opponents, even if they are honorable people. Especially if they are honorable people. The goal is not to dispute their testimony — which, on the facts, seems indisputable — but to discredit them as witnesses and as human beings. The immediate response to the release of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony was for Ingraham to call his loyalty to the United States into question — despite a Purple Heart giving evidence of such loyalty. Attacks on those who dare oppose Trump are reflexive and brutal. To hell with past service. To hell with facts. All that matters is muddying, blunting or silencing an accusation against the dear leader.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of forty. Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 08m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1941, seventy-eight years ago, Imperial Japan attacks the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.
At least two soldiers who say they were sexually assaulted while serving in the Wisconsin National Guard say they either were asked by Guard officials to sign forms waiving their right to notify local law enforcement of the assaults or encouraged to file generic police reports only as a formality, indicating that the military was handling it.
Records obtained by the Cap Times in both cases show that the victims signed or were asked to sign the same form waiving their right to notify local law enforcement.
In one case, a soldier who filed a formal report of sexual assault with the Guard, aiming to trigger an investigation against her perpetrator, says she was told by the Guard’s Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), Maj. Robert Brania, that she needed to make the police report as a “formality” but advised her to make it generic.
“You don’t want the cops coming to his house and bothering his family. Just keep it vague and tell them the military is handling it,” she recalled that she was told. “Why is the state SARC telling me not to name his name?”
The soldier requested anonymity because she still works for the Guard.
She later filed a more detailed police report on the advice of her Special Victims Counsel, which is a type of attorney the military assigns to sexual assault victims.
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The National Guard Bureau’s investigators later substantiated her sexual assault allegations. Wisconsin Guard officials later allowed her perpetrator to retire with benefits and rehired him as a private civilian contractor.
Even as the House of Representatives began drafting charges against President Trump this week, his private attorney, who many believe is partly responsible for leading Trump on the path to his likely impeachment, made an audacious trip to the country at the center of the scandal.
Rudolph W. Giuliani departed Kyiv after meeting with a range of Ukrainians who have been feeding him unproven allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and helping construct a counternarrative that is taking hold in the Republican Party. The latter story line asserts that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, including with the baseless theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
In a Janesville Gazettestory from 12.5, Whitewater’s city manager, Cameron Clapper, is reported as saying that another paper’s coverage incorrectly implied that Toppers Pizza might move its Whitewater headquarters. In fact, the video of a recent Community Development Authority (CDA) meeting from 11.21.19 reveals that it was Clapper, himself, who implied that Toppers might move. (See the video embedded above for the relevant portion of the meeting, transcribed below. The full meeting video is also available online.)
Here’s a transcription of what Clapper said at the meeting about Toppers Pizza:
Clapper: So only a couple of things I have additional to add at this meeting. In prior meetings I had mentioned that I had been playing, I think I’ve mentioned, I’ve had some phone tag with the owner of Toppers Pizza.
I left a message again anticipating this meeting this week, and am waiting for a response back to meet with him and go over future plans for Toppers Pizza in the area. And just essentially just a business retention expansion visit.
But we know that the building has changed owners and so…
Stanek: Is that related to the grocery store?
(Crosstalk)
Stanek: Potentially?
Clapper: It is potentially related to the grocery store. If Toppers wants to not be there anymore, that is a potential location perhaps where we might be looking…
Stanek: It was a grocery store at one time.
In the Gazette story, Clapper is reported to have said that another paper’s account raised a wrong implication:
Clapper pointed to another news outlet’s recent coverage, which he said incorrectly implied Toppers Pizza could leave its headquarters and open a space that might interest a grocer.
The city manager emphasized he has no reason to think the pizza chain will do anything but stay where it is.
That’s not right – Clapper implied Toppers might depart, as his remarks on 11.21.19 plainly show. The other paper (the Register) did not make a mistake – Clapper is accusing that other paper of error simply for reporting his own public comments.
The worthy course for Whitewater’s city manager would have been to admit that he wrongly implied a business departure; it’s not right to blame the Register for his own plain words.
As for the Gazette’s reporter, he’s turned in another disappointing story by failing to hold an official accountable for that official’s own words. (When I wrote about the Gazette story yesterday, it seemed weak, but now it’s evidently negligent.)
As always – the best record of public meetings is a recording.Without that solid source to verify officials’ statements, minimal & verifiable accountability would be replaced with official excuse-making and journalistic negligence.
Cats have a reputation for being “inscrutable,” the researchers say, and their results mostly back up this notion. More than 6,000 study participants in 85 countries, the vast majority of them cat owners, watched brief cat videos and then judged the animals’ moods. The average score was just under 60 percent correct — an F, if cat videos were a school subject.
However, 13 percent of participants did quite well, scoring 75 percent or above. The researchers dubbed these achievers “cat whisperers” — and said their results are important.
“Cats are telling us things with their faces, and if you’re really skilled, you can spot it,” said author Georgia Mason, a behavioral biologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario. “Some people can do it — that means there’s something there. That means that cats are hard to read,” but not wholly inscrutable, she said.
Women, who made up three-fourths of participants, scored better than men, but not by much. Younger people did better than older people. But the most skilled diviners of feline feelings were people with professional experience involving cats, including veterinarians. (You can take a shortened version of the survey here.)
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 09m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1884, workers complete the Washington Monument with a 100-ounce (2.83 kg) aluminum apex/lightning-rod being in place.
“I’m hoping if I keep doing him favors, I’ll get a ride on an F-35,” Delanie Breuer, former chief of staff to former Attorney General Brad Schimel, joked about Adjutant General Donald Dunbar in a Sept. 13, 2018 email to her boss.
The email was obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Cap Times just after federal investigators completed an investigation into whether the Wisconsin National Guard was properly handling allegations of sexual misconduct — a review called for by Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
The DOJ in October 2018 agreed to make available investigators to the Wisconsin National Guard to review such allegations. Earlier this year, a guard spokesman said all reports made by victims who want an investigation are first referred to the DOJ or local law enforcement.
But in the 2018 email, Breuer said the purpose of the agreement was to keep the National Guard Bureau out of state investigations and would not add any new responsibilities to the department.
“The purpose of the (agreement) is mainly to get the federal National Guard Bureau off the back of (Dunbar) – (the National Guard Bureau) is currently stepping in on all investigations that don’t otherwise have a neutral third party,” Breuer wrote. “It basically spells out what (Division of Criminal Investigations) would already do. … It’s just putting it in writing for (Dunbar).”
Federal investigators have completed a sweeping investigation into how the Wisconsin National Guard handles allegations of sexual assault and harassment among its ranks — a review that will soon be made public and could trigger major changes within the Guard.
Gov. Tony Evers said Thursday that within days he will make public the findings of a seven-month investigation by National Guard Bureau’s Office of Complex Investigations into whether the Guard allowed sexual predators to go unchecked and retaliated against victims.
The governor said he will then announce next steps to “ensure that our men and women in uniform work in an environment free from sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation.”
There’s a story at the Janesville Gazette that illustrates the inability of Whitewater, Wisconsin’s local government to communicate effectively on its own. The story, primarily, is about the ongoing search for a stand-alone grocery store to come to Whitewater. See Whitewater city manager remains ‘optimistic’ city will get a grocery store (Beleckis, reporter; Schwartz, editor).
Routine, periodic. In some respects, the story is the same as others published periodically in which officials predict a grocery in the relatively near future. There’s no reason to doubt that city officials want a grocery store; it’s simply false – and silly, really – to contend otherwise. Indeed, it’s probable that officials would incline to any deal, however profligate, than to no deal.
Business rumors. There will always be occasional rumors in Whitewater (and every other city) about businesses that might be coming or going. Business journals, for example, sometimes mix accurate reporting with analysis of low quality. Part of the Gazette story allows Whitewater’s city manager, Cameron Clapper, to reply to a speculative report of that kind.
Failure of independence and effectiveness. Underlying all this, a key point: local government in Whitewater displays weakness and misunderstanding when it relies on an out-of-town chain paper to relay its message. A city using social media & an official website should neither need nor want messaging from a decrepit newspaper with a young reporter. The paper undoubtedly skews to an elderly readership. Whitewater’s own publicly-paid officials would be ahead of stories like this, ahead of rumors like this, if they’d only developed a better bond with the city’s residents.
The Gazette is interesting to me because I grew up in a newspaper-respecting family, and the gap between good work and the Gazette’s reporting is evident. As a practical matter, however, stories in the Gazette about Whitewater’s government are mostly inconsequential for Whitewater – the paper has a skewed demographic and low quality. Most people are reasonable and sharp; for that majority, these stories are easily dissected and dismissed.
It’s not this libertarian’s role – and it never will be – to represent local government. And yet, and yet — it should be obvious that local government should be able to speak directly and effectively to the residents from whom it receives authority.
Catch-up, let-me-explain stories like this show how poorly government communicates on its own.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of forty-one. Sunrise is 7:10 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 10m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 61.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
The investigator, who made the comment while interviewing the victim in the case, said that the state’s attempt to prosecute a soldier for sexual assault through its military justice process was “not the only case that was a train wreck in the Wisconsin National Guard,” according to an audio recording of the interview obtained by the Cap Times.
“The governor and Senator (Tammy) Baldwin will know that your case was a train wreck … they will know that one or more members of the Wisconsin National Guard completely f—– up,” the investigator said.
The comments offer a rare glimpse behind a seven-month long investigation into whether Wisconsin’s National Guard — which includes Army and Air Force units with about 10,000 total members — adequately investigates allegations of sexual assault and whether it follows federal regulations on how to treat victims and perpetrators.
The Wisconsin National Guard, led by longtime Adjutant General Donald Dunbar, has been under scrutiny for months with one of its own internal reports detailing a “culture of sexual misconduct” in one Army unit, and an Air Force officer who says he continues to face retribution for reporting numerous allegations of sexual assault in units there.
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The botched court martial discussed in the audio recording came after a sexual assault at a Guard-sponsored party in 2015. After a night of Guard-authorized drinking, soldiers were required to spend the night in their unit’s armory, according to sworn statements of those present. As they slept on the floor, one soldier sexually assaulted another by placing his finger and tongue in her vaginal area and groping her, according to the charge sheet in the case. Other soldiers in the room at the time said they heard the victim say “no” several times, according to their sworn statements obtained by the Cap Times.
The alleged perpetrator was later charged with four sexual assault violations of the Wisconsin Code of Military Justice, which governs military judicial proceedings in the state.
The state’s military prosecutor missed several administrative deadlines and eventually failed to advance the case. The state then tried to re-open the court martial and eventually settled the case by offering the alleged perpetrator a plea deal. The soldier pled guilty to one charge of “indecent conduct” in August. It is a charge levied by the state for having consensual sex with the victim rather than assaulting her.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty-eight. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 11m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52% of its visible disk illuminated.
On Sunday, for the second time in two weekends, Republican Sen. John Neely Kennedy (La.) spouted what U.S. officials have characterized as Russian propaganda about 2016 election interference. After suggesting that Ukraine rather than Russia might have hacked the Democrats in 2016 — and then recanting — he took to another show this weekend and said that he believes “both Russia and Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.”
In a slapdash fashion, staffers for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who has been implicated himself in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, and two other Republican ranking members—Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Michael McCaul of Texas—have cobbled together a report on the impeachment inquiry that unshockingly proclaims Donald Trump innocent of…everything. This document was released on Monday ahead of the committee’s 300-page, highly detailed summary of its investigation and hearings that was unveiled on Tuesday and forwarded to the judiciary committee for that panel’s impeachment deliberations.
The New York Times published a story Monday with this headline: “ ‘No one believes anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News.” The reporters quoted a Wisconsin woman who said she didn’t know what to think of the various conflicting claims she’d heard about President Trump’s apparent abuse of power.
“You have to go in and really research it,” she said, and she doubted that many people cared enough to do that.
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If every American did anytwo of the following things, the “who knows?” club could be swiftly disbanded.
Subscribe to a national newspaper and go beyond the headlines into the substance of the main articles; subscribe to your local newspaper and read it thoroughly — in print, if possible; watch the top of “PBS NewsHour” every night; watch the first 15 minutes of the half-hour broadcast nightly news; tune in to a public-radio news broadcast; do a simple fact-check search when you hear conflicting claims.
For those who can’t afford to subscribe to newspapers, almost all public libraries can provide access.
“Whatever the president wants us to believe, there are tested and reliable news sources,” [chief operating officer of PEN America Dru] Menaker noted. “There are even more firsthand sources than ever where you can judge yourself — links to documents, video clips, hours of televised testimony.”
