Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Cruelty, Health, Hunger, Immigration, Migrants, Misconduct

‘Hungry, Scared and Sick’

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/10/2019 • Comments

Simon Romero, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Manny Fernandez, Daniel Borunda, Aaron Montes and Caitlin Dickerson report Hungry, Scared and Sick: Inside the Migrant Detention Center in Clint, Tex. (‘An out-of-the-way border station in the desert outside of El Paso has become the epicenter of outrage over the Trump administration’s policies on the southwest border‘):

CLINT, Tex. — Since the Border Patrol opened its station in Clint, Tex., in 2013, it was a fixture in this West Texas farm town. Separated from the surrounding cotton fields and cattle pastures by a razor-wire fence, the station stood on the town’s main road, near a feed store, the Good News Apostolic Church and La Indita Tortillería. Most people around Clint had little idea of what went on inside. Agents came and went in pickup trucks; buses pulled into the gates with the occasional load of children apprehended at the border, four miles south.

But inside the secretive site that is now on the front lines of the southwest border crisis, the men and women who work there were grappling with the stuff of nightmares.

Outbreaks of scabies, shingles and chickenpox were spreading among the hundreds of children and adults who were being held in cramped cells, agents said. The stench of the children’s dirty clothing was so strong it spread to the agents’ own clothing — people in town would scrunch their noses when they left work. The children cried constantly. One girl seemed likely enough to try to kill herself that the agents made her sleep on a cot in front of them, so they could watch her as they were processing new arrivals.

“It gets to a point where you start to become a robot,” said a veteran Border Patrol agent who has worked at the Clint station since it was built. He described following orders to take beds away from children to make more space in holding cells, part of a daily routine that he said had become “heartbreaking.”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.10.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/10/2019 • 2 Comments

Good morning.

On this day in 1832, construction of Fort Koshkonong begins.

Recommended for reading in full:

Kathleen Parker writes One thing is clear from the Jeffrey Epstein revelations: Acosta must step down:

In a 2011 letter trying to defend himself after the cushy plea deal, Acosta wrote that he faced “a year-long assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors” by “an army of legal superstars.” He also asserted that defense lawyers “investigated individual prosecutors and their families, looking for personal peccadilloes that may provide a basis for disqualification.”

Go on, grab a hankie. Acosta also has said he feared the young accusers might not be their own best witnesses. Perhaps not. Then again, seeing girls interrogated and cross-examined by high-profile lawyers might have worked in their favor. Instead, the alleged victims were kept in the dark about the non-prosecution agreement and the records were sealed, in contravention of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

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On Monday, a new 14-page federal indictment was unsealed in New York accusing Epstein of sex trafficking and abuse of underage girls at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla., between 2002 and 2005. The details are as disgusting as they are creepy. In short, Epstein allegedly had young girls brought to his homes to perform massages and sex acts in exchange for money. After girls had been brought in, they were sometimes enticed to recruit other girls — and so it went on for years, according to the indictment.

No one has ever overestimated the power of money, and its power to corrupt is absolute. The hubris that passeth all understanding belongs to Epstein.

Pending further revelations, one thing is clear: Acosta should step down from his Cabinet position for dereliction of duty in his prior role — and because he has the spine of a mollusk. In deciding not to fully prosecute Epstein in 2007 — and then agreeing to bury the proceedings without advising the victims — he violated the law, betrayed the victims’ trust and displayed rare cowardice before justice.

Suzanne Spaulding, Devi Nair, and Arthur Nelson describe Russia’s Attacks on Democratic Justice Systems:

Russia is engaged in a determined assault on Western democracies and their institutions. At its core, this is an attack on public trust and confidence. While policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have made important strides to combat Russian disinformation operations as they pertain to election security, little has been done to acknowledge and adequately address the threats against justice systems.

Traditionally a democracy’s judiciary is among the most trusted institution in the government. Because of this, it might seem like an unlikely target for disinformation campaigns by a foreign power. However, the judiciary is also, like elections, entirely dependent upon public acceptance of the legitimacy of its outcomes. The idea of a system built on the rule of law and justice delivered by a fair and impartial judiciary is a critical pillar of democracy and one of its greatest strengths. Erode the public’s belief in that idea, and the pillar begins to crumble.

Institutions must continue to work to live up to our ideals. But proactive steps must also be taken to safeguard justice systems in democracies like the United States and elsewhere. These systems must be actively protected from outside interference designed to undermine them. Perhaps more importantly, targeted countries need to ensure that their institutions and public are resilient in the face of adversary information operations that threaten to erode trust in democratic institutions.

The adversary most actively using disinformation to weaken democracies today is Russia. To better appreciate the threat landscape and the policies that might be considered to protect justice systems, we need to first understand how exactly Moscow uses disinformation to undermine these institutions.

The Business of Amazon’s Shipping Boxes:

America, Asylum, City, Good Ideas, Immigration, Liberty

Lights for Liberty

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/09/2019 • Comments

LIGHTS for LIBERTY is a national movement to unite Americans from across this continent on the evening of July 12th, 2019. (In Whitewater residents will be gathering in support of migrants’ rights at the Cravath Lakefront at 8:30 PM.)

We are a coalition of people, many of whom are mothers, dedicated to human rights, and the fundamental principle behind democracy that all human beings have a right to life, liberty and dignity.

We are partnering with international, national, regional and local communities and organizations who believe that these fundamental rights are not negotiable and are willing to protect them.

On Friday July 12th, 2019, Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps, will bring thousands of people to locations worldwide as well as to concentration camps across country, into the streets and into their own front yards, to protest the inhumane conditions faced by migrants.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.9.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/09/2019 • Comments

Good morning.

The Whitewater School District’s Policy Review Committee meets at 8 AM.

On this day in 1863, the Siege of Jackson, Mississippi continues with several Wisconsin units participating.

Recommended for reading in full:

Michael Gerson writes American greatness needs to include humane treatment of migrants:

President Trump’s Fourth of July remarks did make reference to the abstract promises of the Declaration of Independence, but he mainly praised his nation as a place and a power.

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Contrast this with the national story told by Ronald Reagan or Franklin D. Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy or George W. Bush. American ideals — while growing out of a specific culture — are transcendent and universal. Though military power is essential, the nation advances on the strength of democratic hopes. It wins a global competition of ideals because it accords most closely with the durable dreams of humanity for liberty and justice.

This differing emphasis has dramatic implications. If the United States is primarily a normal nation, united by a common culture, then it is diluted by outsiders and weakened by diversity. In this circumstance, cultural differences lead inexorably to conflict and disunity. A nation defined primarily by culture or ethnicity is a fortress to be defended.

But if the United States somehow embodies the best and highest of human aspirations — separate from culture and ethnicity — then there is hope of mutual progress. “America has never been united by blood or birth or soil,” said George W. Bush in his first inaugural address. “We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.”

Lisa Rein, Michael Kranish, and Josh Dawsey report Epstein indictment renews questions about earlier case handled by Trump Cabinet official:

The indictment Monday of Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges has reignited questions about the way Alexander Acosta — now President Trump’s labor secretary — handled an earlier case against Epstein that resulted in a minimal sentence.

As U.S. attorney in Florida in 2007, Acosta negotiated a plea deal that led to two felony solicitation charges and 13 months in county jail for Epstein, with the billionaire financier allowed to work from his office six days a week. Epstein had been facing the possibility of life in prison. His alleged victims were not told about the deal.

On Monday, in the indictment issued in federal court in New York, Epstein faced charges resulting from allegations like those in the Florida case. The indictment says that “in both New York and Florida,” Epstein “perpetuated this abuse in similar ways.”

What’s Next For Boeing?:

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Education, Science/Nature

Nutty Stories Don’t Seem Nutty to the Unprepared

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/08/2019 • Comments

Hobbes famously observed that reason is a spy for the passions (“the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”). Whatever else one may think of Hobbes, in this he was, sadly, too often correct.

So when one reads a story that battens on worries about technology, it’s tempting to believe it might be true. One example is a recent Washington Post story reporting that ‘Horns’ are growing on young people’s skulls. Phone use is to blame, research suggests. (Even good papers – and the Post is a good paper – sometimes go wrong.)

As it turns out, the report that cell phone use is leading to changes in the shape of users’ skulls is bunk.

Beth Mole at Ars Technica explains in Debunked: The absurd story about smartphones causing kids to sprout horns:

The Post’s story was primarily based on a study published back in February 2018 by two Australian researchers. It earned fresh attention last week after being mentioned in a BBC feature on how modern life is supposedly transforming the human skeleton. The study was published in Nature’s open source journal Scientific Reports, which is supposedly peer-reviewed. But the study has significant limitations and flaws, and the Post breezed over them for a sensationalized story.

Perhaps the most striking problems are that the study makes no mention of horns and does not include any data whatsoever on mobile device usage by its participants who, according to the Post, are growing alleged horns. Also troubling is that the study authors don’t report much of the data, and some of the results blatantly conflict with each other.

Last, it appears that the study’s lead author—David Shahar, a chiropractor and biomechanics researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland—has a financial incentive to convince people that their modern lifestyles are deforming their skeletons; Shahar goes by the name Dr. Posture online and has developed devices and techniques to prevent such posture problems. At the time of writing this, the Dr. Posture Thoracic Pillow was currently unavailable on Amazon, though.

Smart people sometimes fall – seemingly want to fall – for claims that turn out to be sketchy. Most people are sharp; they go awry for reasons other than intelligence.

Some solutions work better than others. Proofreading doesn’t inoculate readers, because mere textual correction is a lower-order task. Fact-checking sometimes works, but not so well against those with a strong bias. In the end, it’s a different kind of fact-checking, aggressively applied, that has the best chance of long-term success. See Fact-Checking is an Active, Ongoing Effort.

That kind of fact-checking rests on a perspective, a reasoned editorial view, a reliable paradigm.

Communities are susceptible of junk science, junk economics, and junk policies because they’ve not embraced a useful model by which they may soundly evaluate others’ claims.

We don’t teach models like that so often and so well as we should.

That lack leaves us reading – and some even needlessly worrying – that our children are growing horns.

Babbittry, Books, Culture, Fact Checking, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Politics, Public Relations, That Which Paved the Way

Fact-Checking is an Active, Ongoing Effort

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/08/2019 • 1 Comment

Laura Hazard Cohen explains that “First-generation fact-checking” is no longer good enough. Here’s what comes next:

“Fact checkers need to move from ‘publish and pray’ to ‘publish and act.’” “The idea that fact checking can work by correcting the public’s inaccurate beliefs on a mass scale alone doesn’t stack up,” write representatives from Full Fact (U.K.), Africa Check (Africa), and Chequeado (Argentina), in a manifesto of sorts published Thursday to all three sites.

“First-generation fact-checking” — the approach of simply publishing fact-checks, which sites like FactCheck.org do — is a worthy effort, the authors write, but it isn’t enough if you actually want to change people’s minds. “Nobody should be surprised when, despite fact checkers publishing lots of fact checks, people still believe inaccurate things and politicians still spin and distort. Fact checking can work but not if this is all we do.”

What, then, is to be done?

Hazard Cohen writes of leading fact-checkers’ plans:

Full Fact, Africa Check, and Chequeado argue instead for their second-generation approach that includes not just publishing but also pressure and working for system change:

First, we move from just publishing to “publish and act.” We seek corrections on the record, pressure people not to make the same mistake again, complain where possible to a standards body. In other words, we use whatever forms of moral, public, or where appropriate regulatory pressure are available to stop the spread of specific bits of misinformation.

It’s hard to overstate how important it is to return again and again to a topic. In small towns, especially, boosterism – where local officials think Babbitt is not a cautionary tale but an instructional manual – fact-checking requires a patient but relentless response.

(In a place like Whitewater, this boosterism has mainly been of the center-right, but it’s slowly changing into a center-left version of the same. Boosterism shaded blue will prove no better for communities than boosterism shaded red. For some, hucksterism is probably more important than any religion, philosophy, or politics could ever be. That’s a sad state, but a manifest truth, too.)

In any event, a thousand maneuvers of public relations and marketing on behalf of boosterism (and these gentlemen will offer at least a thousand) are nothing against the attritional power of sound principles of history, economics, and law.

Attrition is slow, but properly applied its effects are inexorable.

Music

Monday Music: AC/DC, Back in Black

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/08/2019 • Comments

Part of the soundtrack of (and a joke in) Spider-Man: Far from Home.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.8.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/08/2019 • Comments

Good morning.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1776, during a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, it is likely that the Liberty Bell was one of several bells rung to proclaim America’s permanent separation from Britain.

Recommended for reading in full:

Matt Zapotosky reports Justice Department changing lawyers on census case:

The Justice Department is swapping out the lawyers who had been representing the administration in its legal battle to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census, possibly signaling career attorneys’ legal or ethical concerns over the maneuvering ordered by President Trump.

The department announced the move in a statement, which was issued after The Washington Post inquired about whether the career lawyers on the team planned to withdraw. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that at least some of the career attorneys harbored concerns about the administration’s handling of the case — although the nature of those concerns and how widespread they were could not immediately be learned.

“As will be reflected in filings tomorrow in the census-related cases, the Department of Justice is shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. “Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity and skill inside and outside the courtroom. The attorney general appreciates that service, thanks them for their work on these important matters and is confident that the new team will carry on in the same exemplary fashion as the cases progress.”

Lee Bergquist reports Wisconsin’s largest landfill wants to take in more garbage in Menomonee Falls by moving Superfund waste:

Until early this year, Orchard Ridge landfill in Menomonee Falls — the largest in Wisconsin — was close to running out of space.

The sprawling site that lies east of Interstate 41/Highway 45 and north of West Brown Deer Road would likely have been used up by the end of the year, or possibly next year.

Today, the picture is sharply different for a mountain of waste that rises 16 stories above the surrounding landscape.

The site’s owner, Waste Management, received approval from state regulators for one expansion this spring.

Now the company is asking the Department of Natural Resources to move ahead with another, employing a seldom-used strategy in Wisconsin of unearthing contaminated garbage to make room for new garbage.

Together, the two projects could add up to 21 years of life to the sprawling 725-acre landfill.

Ahead of 2020, Beware the Deepfake:

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City, Film

Film: Tuesday, July 9th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, On the Basis of Sex

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/07/2019 • Comments

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This Tuesday, July 9th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of On the Basis of Sex @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

“On the Basis of Sex” (Biography/Drama)

Tuesday, July 9, 12:30 pm
PG-13; 2 hours (2018)

The true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her struggles for equal rights and the early cases of a historic career that led to her appointment by President Bill Clinton, and confirmation as a US Supreme Court Associate Justice, in 1993. Starring Felicity Jones as RBG, and Armie Hammer as her husband, Martin.

One can find more information about On the Basis of Sex at the Internet Movie Database.

Enjoy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.7.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/07/2019 • Comments

Good morning.

On this day in 1832, Black Hawk War militia encamp in Palmyra:

During the Black Hawk War, General Atkinson led his entire militia, which included future presidents Abraham Lincoln and Zachary Taylor, to a camp just south of Palmyra.

Recommended for reading in full:

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky report Jeffrey Epstein taken into custody in New York on new charges related to sex crimes involving minors:

Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected multimillionaire who was sentenced to just more than a year in jail to resolve allegations that he molested dozens of young girls, has been taken into custody in New York on new charges having to do with sex crimes involving minors, a person familiar with the matter said.

….

The latest charges add a significant new wrinkle to the considerable political and legal saga surrounding Epstein. The wealthy financier — who counted among his friends President Trump and former president Bill Clinton — pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of soliciting prostitution in a controversial arrangement that allowed him to resolve far more serious federal allegations of molesting young girls.

His case was the subject of an investigation by the Miami Herald, which detailed how then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, now Trump’s labor secretary, shelved a 53-page federal indictment that could have put Epstein behind bars for life. The arrangement is now being investigated by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is seeking to determine whether the attorneys involved committed “professional misconduct” in bringing about its close.

William Frey writes Less than half of US children under 15 are white, census shows:

For the first time, non-Hispanic white residents now make up less than half (49.9%) of the nation’s under age 15 population, newly released 2018 U.S. Census Bureau estimates show. The new data highlight the increasing racial diversity of the nation’s overall population, for which non-Hispanic whites now comprise only slightly more than three-fifths (60.4%) of all residents. But the fact that white children under 15 have already become a minority in their age group puts an exclamation point on the fact that the nation’s diversity is percolating from the “bottom up” as the white population ages. This phenomenon, which is projected to continue, emphasizes the need for institutions that focus on children and young families to proactively accommodate the interests of more racially diverse populations, as the latter will be key players in the country’s demographic and economic future.

Answers to Five Whys:

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.6.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/06/2019 • Comments

Good morning.

On this day in 1775, the Second Continental Congress issues the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.

Recommended for reading in full:

Jeremy Raff reports What a Pediatrician Saw Inside a Border Patrol Warehouse (‘Dolly Lucio Sevier evaluated dozens of sick children at a facility in South Texas. She found evidence of infection, malnutrition, and psychological trauma’):

MCALLEN, Texas—Inside the Border Patrol warehouse on Ursula Avenue, Dolly Lucio Sevier saw a baby who’d been fed from the same unwashed bottle for days; children showing signs of malnutrition and dehydration; and several kids who, in her medical opinion, were exhibiting clear evidence of psychological trauma. More than 1,000 migrant children sat in the detention facility here, and Sevier, a local pediatrician, had been examining as many as she could, one at a time. But she wasn’t permitted to enter the area where they were being held, many of them in cages, and find the sickest kids to examine. Instead, in a nearby room, she manually reviewed a 50-page printout of that day’s detainees, and highlighted the names of children with a 2019 birth date—the babies—before moving on to the toddlers.

When it was almost time to leave, Sevier asked to see a 3-year-old girl, and then two other children. But by that point, the friendly and accommodating Border Patrol agent assisting her earlier in the day had been replaced by a dour guard, wearing a surgical mask, who claimed that he couldn’t find the toddler. “We can wait,” Sevier said, as she recalled to me in an interview. Her tone was polite but firm; she knew that she had the right under a federal court settlement to examine whomever she liked.

Paul Fahri reports Whatever happened to Breitbart? The insurgent star of the right is in a long, slow fade:

In January 2017, Breitbart.com was flying high. Donald Trump, the candidate it had backed during the 2016 campaign, was sworn in as president. Its former executive chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, was named chief White House strategist, seemingly auguring an era of unparalleled access and influence for the far-right, anti-establishment news and commentary site.

In hindsight, it looks like it was Breitbart’s high-water mark.

The site Bannon once described as “the platform for the alt-right” has steadily tumbled from the commanding heights it occupied just 30 months ago.

Since Trump became president, monthly traffic has virtually collapsed, plummeting nearly 75 percent. Aggressive conservative competitors have zoomed past it. At the same time, it faces a double financial whammy: the loss of its biggest donor and an ad boycott launched by a liberal group that continues to erode its revenue.

How Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest Became A Fourth Of July Favorite:

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Animals, Cats

Friday Catblogging: Cat v. Bear

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/05/2019 • Comments

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.5.19

by JOHN ADAMS • 07/05/2019 • Comments

Good morning.

On this day in 1832, Atkinson enters the Trembling Lands:

The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk.

Recommended for reading in full:

Steve Karnowski and Balint Szalai report In Trump aid package to farmers buckled by trade war, many find ways to skirt caps:

When President Donald Trump’s administration announced a $12 billion aid package for farmers struggling under the financial strain of his trade dispute with China, the payments were capped. But many large farming operations had no trouble finding legal ways around them, records provided to the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act show.

The government paid nearly $2.8 million to a Missouri soybean operation registered as three entities at the same address. More than $900,000 went to five other farm businesses, in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and two in Texas. Three other farming operations collected more than $800,000, and 16 others collected more than $700,000.

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The numerous ways around the caps mean that millions of subsidy dollars flow to “city slickers who are stretching the limits of the law,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, which has criticized federal farm subsidy programs as biased toward big producers and promoting environmentally damaging farming practices.

Urban dwellers might play only a small role in an operation without ever setting foot on the farm because of the loose definitions for who qualifies, he said.

Alex Isenstadt reports NRA meltdown has Trump campaign sweating:

The National Rifle Association aired an avalanche of TV ads and pushed its 5 million-plus members to the polls for Donald Trump in 2016, propelling him in the Rust Belt states that delivered him the presidency.

Now, the gun rights group is in total meltdown — and senior Republicans and Trump 2020 officials are alarmed.

In recent weeks, the NRA has seen everything from a failed coup attempt to the departure of its longtime political architect to embarrassing tales of self-dealing by top leaders. The turmoil is fueling fears that the organization will be profoundly diminished heading into the election, leaving the Republican Party with a gaping hole in its political machinery.

With the Chamber of Commerce and Koch political network withdrawing from their once-dominant roles in electing conservatives, Republicans worry that three organizations that have long formed the core of their electoral infrastructure will be effectively on the sidelines.

Total Solar Eclipse 2019: