FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.9.19

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of nineteen.  Sunrise is 6:58 AM and sunset 5:19 PM, for 10h 17m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 18.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1870, Pres. Grant signs a joint resolution authorizing a national weather service, long a dream of Milwaukee scientist Increase Lapham:

Lapham, 19th-century Wisconsin’s premier natural scientist, proposed a national weather service after he mapped data contributed over telegraph lines in the Upper Midwest and realized that weather might be predicted in advance.

Recommended for reading in full:

David Glovin and Andrew Martin report Manafort Prosecutors Have Questions About $1 Million Condo Loan:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to know more about a $1 million loan made to Paul Manafort’s family in the days after the FBI raided his home.

Mueller’s prosecutors on Thursday told a court they needed to know more about the August 2017 loan, from a Nevada company called Woodlawn LLC. Manafort, the onetime chairman of President Donald Trump’s campaign, guaranteed the loan, which was secured by the family’s interest in a Manhattan condominium, according to court papers.

As Manafort’s legal problems escalated, Woodlawn installed a Hollywood bit player named Joey Rappa as its “managing member” in public filings. The investor or investors funding the loan wanted to remain anonymous given the potential for embarrassment, according to a lawyer for the lender.

Now that prosecutors are seeking to seize the condo after Manafort’s conviction on tax- and bank-fraud charges, Woodlawn is staking a claim to it in order to collect on the debt.

But one riddle remains: Who actually funded the $1 million loan?

 Aaron Blake assesses What we learned from the Matthew G. Whitaker hearing:

Whitaker might not have revealed anything disastrous, but he was an unsteady witness. At the start of the hearing, he decided to tell the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), that Nadler had exceeded his allotted five minutes for questions, earning gasps and laughter from those assembled. He repeatedly told members that this was an oversight hearing and not a confirmation hearing, even though they were generally asking him about the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III (over which he has oversight). He repeatedly and obviously stalled by avoiding easy yes-or-no questions or not answering at all. He often referred to how little fun he was having during the hearing and how little time he had left in his job, given Barr has a confirmation vote next week.

None of it inspired much confidence from the nation’s active leading law enforcement official. There are ways to deftly maneuver these things without giving away too much (as Barr showed us in his confirmation hearing). But Whitaker seemed to be holding on for dear life, intent to run out the clock — both during questioning and on his time as acting attorney general.

  How Planes Land Sideways In High Winds:

Books, City, Culture

The Pictures on the Wall

by  •  •  Comments

During a recent visit to the public library here in Whitewater, I stopped to look at a display of photographs, of framed pictures each showing a resident of the city posing with a book.

The residents were easy to see, but the book titles harder to identify, so I drew closer to the exhibit.  As I stood there, an older woman from the library’s staff came nearby and began sorting books from a bin.  I thought it might be best to explain to her why I was standing around, so that she would not think that I was about to steal a book, or maliciously sort nearby brochures in an unalphabetized order.

So I said to her, “I’m looking at these photos.”

And she replied, “Do you recognize anyone?”

In her question, one finds an old-fashioned habit still lingering in this city: she was asking about my ability to identify the people in the photographs, not the books they were holding. Even in a library, some residents of the city would, predictably, think this way.

And so I answered her, “Yes, all of them.”  (It is, after all, a small town.)

She was incredulous. “All of them,” she replied disbelievingly.

My best guess about her skepticism is that she believed that if she could not identify someone, then surely he could not possibly be able to identify the leading figures in the city.

In Whitewater, another person – perhaps even a few of those in the photographs – might have taken umbrage, and made some bold statement of prominence, importance, etc.

I had no statement of that kind to make.  Instead, it was more than enough to walk away confident that an untainted observation of a thing matters more than a tainting declaration.

Old Whitewater – a state of mind and not a person – runs on self-promotion as fuel.

There’s no enduring hope, however, in that perspective — one makes one’s way through a cause, not celebrity.

Of books, in particular, is it not true (especially for young readers) that the words inside and out – contents, subjects, titles, and even cover art – are what catch readers’ notice and then hold them spellbound?

The interest in the photographs lies not in the people holding the books, but in the inviting titles in their hands.

Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin

‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn’

by  •  • 4 Comments

The published case against Foxconn – with reporting & analysis from some of America’s finest journalists and economists – is overwhelming. Their careful, published work has set out the plain facts for well over a year. And yet, as a multi-billion dollar public failure, there are even more startling accounts still emerging.

Austin Carr reports Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn (“A huge tax break was supposed to create a manufacturing paradise, but interviews with 49 people familiar with the project depict a chaotic operation unlikely to ever employ 13,000 workers”):

“This is the Eighth Wonder of the World.”

So declared President Donald Trump onstage last June at a press event at Foxconn’s new factory in Mount Pleasant, Wis. He was there to herald the potential of the Taiwanese manufacturing giant’s expansion into cheesehead country. He’d joined Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou and then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to celebrate a partnership he’d helped broker—“one of the great deals ever,” Trump said. In exchange for more than $4.5 billion in government incentives, Foxconn had agreed to build a high-tech manufacturing hub on 3,000 acres of farmland south of Milwaukee and create as many as 13,000 good-paying jobs for “amazing Wisconsin workers” as early as 2022.

….

Shortly after Trump’s visit, things got worse. A Foxconn manager at the factory, which then had only about 60 people working there, abruptly called about 15 of them—all interns —into a room to say they should seek other jobs because there wasn’t enough work to hire them full time, according to multiple people present. Two sources recall the manager telling the group, cryptically, that there were forces outside the company’s control affecting the Wisconsin project. A number of the interns, who’d received praise from Trump and shaken Gou’s hand just weeks earlier, were stunned. “It was upsetting for people,” says James Pitman, one of the former interns. “They had hyped a lot of shit up. We were used as a publicity stunt.” Foxconn says that’s insulting and that the internships ended as scheduled.

Interviews with 49 people familiar with Foxconn’s Wisconsin project, including more than a dozen current and former employees close to its efforts there, show how hollow the boosters’ assurances have been all along. While Foxconn for months declined requests to interview executives, insiders describe a chaotic environment with ever-changing goals far different from what Trump and others promised. Walker and the White House declined to comment for this story, although a Trump administration official says the White House would be “disappointed” by any reduced investment. The only consistency, many of these people say, lay in how obvious it was that Wisconsin struck a weak deal. Under the terms Walker negotiated, each job at the Mount Pleasant factory is projected to cost the state at least $219,000 in tax breaks and other incentives. The good or extra-bad news, depending on your perspective, is that there probably won’t be 13,000 of them.

(Emphasis added.)

The full, detailed article – over 3,500 words long — is must-reading about Foxconn.

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, and Foxconn: The ‘State Visit Project.’

 

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.8.19

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny & breezy with a high of ten.  Sunrise is 7:00 AM and sunset 5:17 PM, for 10h 17m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 11.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1958, a Wisconsin representative starts a fight in Congress:

Just before the Civil War, the issue of slavery tore apart the U.S. Congress. On February 8, 1858, Wisconsin Rep. John Potter (considered a backwoods hooligan by Southern aristocrats) leaped into a fight on the House floor. When Potter embarrassed a pro-slavery brawler by pulling off his wig, the gallery shouted that he’d taken a Southern scalp. Potter emerged from the melee covered in blood and marked by slave owners as an enemy. Two years later, on April 5, 1860, he accused Virginia Rep. Roger Pryor of falsifying the Congressional record. Pryor, feeling his character impugned, challenged Potter to a duel. According to Southern custom, a person challenged had the right to choose weapons. Potter replied that he would only fight with “Bowie knives in a closed room,” and his Southern challenger beat a hasty retreat. Republican supporters around the nation sent Potter Bowie knives as a tribute, including this six-foot-long one.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Molly Beck reports Scott Walker gets a new gig charging up to $25,000 per speech:

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker has a new gig charging five figures to give speeches about politics and his time in public office in Wisconsin.

Walker announced Thursday he would be joining Worldwide Speakers Group, which coordinates speaking engagements for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.

Walker’s speaking fee ranges between $15,000 and $25,000 per engagement. According to the group’s website, Walker’s speech topics include:

  • Leadership Lessons: How big, bold reforms work.
  • Insights on the current political (and future) landscape in America
  • Crisis Management: How to turn a serious challenge into a major opportunity
  • Power to the People: Sending resources and responsibilities to the states.
  • The Power of Faith in Times of Crisis

(Oh brother: there just aren’t many organizations willing to pay $25,000 for the excitement of watching paint dry.)

 Ron Brownstein observes Trump Is Walling Off the GOP:

The strength of his appeal to the white voters most hostile to economic and social change remains a powerful asset, particularly because the Electoral College and two-senator-per-state rule amplify the influence of interior states where those voters are most prevalent. But the magnitude of the GOP’s defeat in House elections last fall suggests the size of the coalition that Trump is potentially solidifying against his party, particularly as the unprecedentedly diverse Millennial and post-Millennial generations grow as a share of the electorate. As [Peter] Wehner noted, “the real problem” Trump is creating for the GOP is that “the very thing that alienates the Republican Party from most of the public is the very thing that energizes most of the base, which is cultural identity and ethnic nationalism.”

   So, Are All Galaxies the Same?

Courts, Crime, Law, Walworth County

Scenes from the Alabama Walworth County Legal System

by  •  •  Comments

One reads that Walworth County treatment courts face uncertain future after DA questions role:

The future of Walworth County’s treatment courts is uncertain after District Attorney Zeke Wiedenfeld at a special meeting Tuesday questioned his office’s participation in the programs and its level of control over who enters them.

Most questions from Tuesday’s meeting went to Wiedenfeld.  Although treatment courts would not necessarily cease to exist without the participation of the district attorney’s office, some committee members, including Judge Phillip Koss, signaled they would not support programs without it.

Wiedenfeld said he is “concerned” with a treatment-court structure that does not give his office authority to limit who gets into the programs. He said he did not know if he wanted to be involved with a program where it’s up to the judges.

The judge who oversees drug court, Daniel Johnson, said “I don’t think it’s fair to essentially accuse the judges of willy-nilly sending people into these programs whenever we feel like it without a rhyme or a reason to it.”

Judge David Reddy, who is the project director for the county’s treatment courts, said only two of the 69 entries into drug court were against the recommendation of the DA’s office.

Wiedenfeld said it’s his philosophy to be proactive and address small problems before they’re big.

(Emphasis added.)

(It’s telling, really, that Koss, a former prosecutor with a controversial record, would defer to the prosecutorial power rather than of his own judicial office.)

Wiedenfeld speaks of his philosophy (‘to be proactive’) and in support of public safety as though no one on the bench might have those same goals; he presumes his own statutorily-limited role as a prosecutor should include a veto even over the judicial authority in his county.

Too funny, also, that Wiedenfeld thinks threatening to take his marbles and walk away from a successful program is what it means to be proactive.

No, and no again: it’s what it means to undermine a program that’s worked effectively since 2014, with scores of positive outcomes at a significant cost saving to the community.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.7.19

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will ee freezing rain with a high of thirty-six.  Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 5:16 PM, for 10h 15m 02s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1867, Laura Ingalls Wilder is born near Pepin, Wisconsin.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Rick Romell reports For third straight year, Wisconsin ranks last in business startup activity:

Another year, another last-place ranking for Wisconsin on the business startup front.

For the third year running, Wisconsin has placed 50th among the 50 states in startup activity as measured by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, one of the country’s leading entrepreneurship advocacy and research organizations.

Not only was Wisconsin last; the gap between Wisconsin and the next-lowest states widened significantly from 2016 and 2015. While other states are clustered with relatively small differences from one state to the next, Wisconsin stands as an outlier – on the low end.

(How very surprising, as by using a public-subsidies approach Gov. Walker insisted for each of his eight years that Wisconsin was open for business…)

 Dan Friedman reports Investigators Are Zeroing in on Top NRA Leaders’ Russia Ties—and Challenging the Gun Group’s Story:

After remaining all but mum for the past two years about news reports detailing its ties to Russia, the National Rifle Association finally spoke up this week. The gun group tried to distance itself from a 2015 trip to Moscow by top NRA officials that was arranged by Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty last year to acting as a Russian agent and participating in a conspiracy against the United States. But congressional investigators are challenging the NRA on what they think is a bogus cover story and stepping up investigations of the group.

The 2015 Moscow trip has drawn attention in particular because it appears to have been a key development in an influence campaign orchestrated by Butina and her handler, Russian official Alexander Torshin, to try to cultivate ties with American conservatives and Republicans—eventually including Donald Trump—and nudge them toward pro-Russia policies. Amid the mounting pressure, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre finally broke his silence on the matter, asserting through attorneys this week that he had opposed the trip and acted to distance the gun group from it.

But Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who is investigating the NRA as the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has information contradicting the gun group’s claims that it had no “official” connection to the 2015 Moscow trip, sources told Mother Jones. Wyden is preparing a detailed report on the trip. And congressional investigators are homing in on David Keene, a former NRA president who was the trip’s primary organizer on the NRA side, according to people familiar with the matter.

….

Keene, a longtime conservative Republican figurehead and former opinion editor for the Washington Times, also sought an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the trip, according to reports this week, though one did not take place.

  Tiny meteorites are everywhere. Here’s how to find them:

Culture, Never Trump, Ocasio-Cortez, Politics

Why Won’t You Smile?

by  •  • 4 Comments

One can guess that libertarians oppose the anti-market economics of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. It’s odd, to me, though, how much time conservatives have spent complaining, critiquing, and analyzing that democratic socialist from New York.

In those conservative critiques, however, one sees more than an economic or foreign policy disagreement: some of these conservatives are upset that she’s upset with Trump, and are themselves upset with the very idea that Ocasio-Cortez might be upset about anything.

In her opposition to Trump, in her revulsion to his lumpen bigotry, Ocasio-Cortez is, however, both right and sympathetic.

Consider this exchange between conservative Peggy Noonan and Ocasio-Cortez about how Noonan thinks Ocasio-Cortez should have behaved at the State of the Union address last night:

Noonan (@Peggynoonannyc):

And good natured with the white jackets, who I see some on twitter are calling the straight jackets. AOC had a rare bad night, looking not spirited, warm and original as usual but sullen, teenaged and at a loss.

Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC):

Why should I be “spirited and warm” for this embarrassment of a #SOTU?

Tonight was an unsettling night for our country. The president failed to offer any plan, any vision at all, for our future.

We’re flying without a pilot. And I‘m not here to comfort anyone about that fact.

All considered, Ocasio-Cortez is restrained, almost mild, in her reply.

She’s also on solid ground: Ocasio-Cortez owes no one a smile, least of all Noonan, an aged conservative at a Murdoch publication who’s able to live comfortably while Trump inflicts injuries on countless common people.

While I would not (and could not) speak for @AOC, for myself I will say that there will be smiling enough when both Trump and those such as Noonan find themselves in the political outer darkness they so deserve.

Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, Scott Walker, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC

Foxconn: The ‘State Visit Project’

by  •  •  Comments

Willy Shih, of Harvard Business School, writes that Foxconn’s Wisconsin Factory Is What The Chinese Call A ‘State Visit Project’:

Last week I wrote that Foxconn’s giant flat-screen factory in Wisconsin was facing an economic reality check, and might not get built after all. On Friday, after a call between Foxconn chairman Terry Gou and President Donald Trump, it was reported to be on again.

In China, they have a term for this type of project: … “Gao Fang Xiangmu”) – a “state visit project” which is signed during a high-level visit. They are announced during the visit of a head of state, or some high-profile event where there is an important political message. Back in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Boeing widebody facility in Everett, Washington, and announced an order for 300 aircraft. This gave President Xi the opportunity to emphasize the importance of China to Boeing, its workers, suppliers, and the communities they operate in. The specific details would be worked out later.

….

I think Mr. Gou’s visit to Wisconsin last June was the same thing. A state visit project – a high-profile way to earn some serious good will and political capital. But as Foxconn worked through the details, I suspect they were having trouble figuring out how to make economic sense of it all, for many of the reasons I explained.

This is, of course, economically irrational, and offers benefits only for the political leaders and cronies who stand to benefit personally.

State capitalism (when the public subsidies for business deals) and crony capitalism (where insiders benefit from those publicly-subsidized deals) are the core of the Foxconn project.

There’s a wide gap between business groups that cajole for as much public money as they can get and a free market of private buyers and sellers who make their way in the world without leaching money from taxpayers.

These pro-government American conservatives are tiny versions of the hangers-on and operatives of party-controlled foreign economies.

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, and Laughable Spin as Industrial Policy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.6.19

by  •  •  Comments

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-five.  Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 5:15 PM, for 10h 09m 57s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

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

On this day in 1967, activist Stokely Carmichael speaks at UW-Whitewater.

Recommended for reading in full:

 David Frum writes Trump Doubles Down:

The 2019 State of the Union doubled down on trade wars and border walls, on ally-baiting and America-preening. Unfortunately for Trump, Option 2 only makes sense when you command a potential majority coalition, as Reagan and Obama did. When you don’t, as Trump does not, the highly divisive politics that rally your base simultaneously rally your opponents’ bigger base.

By talking so fiercely about abortion, Trump has hugely raised the stakes for his judicial nominations, including the pending nomination of Neomi Rao for the D.C. Circuit. Trump’s accusatory language about border walls seems intended to make impossible any kind of agreement on border security.

Meanwhile, Trump’s most indispensable supporters—the Republican senators—looked unconvinced and displeased through the speech’s more pitchfork-waving passages. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has little interest fighting Pharma or launching another round of tariffs against China and Mexico.

Back during the campaign, Trump defenders excused their man’s acknowledged faults by recycling a compliment President Lincoln paid General Grant: “He fights.” But Grant planned his fights. He counted his troops and those of the adversary, reconnoitered the ground, brought up supplies, devised a plan. He didn’t just plunge head first against a wall in a spasm of ill temper. Trump doesn’t do any of those things. That’s why this president who talks so much about winning is suddenly losing on almost every political front.

 Aaron Blake writes Virtually every organization Trump has run in recent years has been under investigation. Here’s where those probes stand:

News broke Monday night that federal prosecutors issued a subpoena in the burgeoning investigation of the Trump inaugural committee. And we can add that one to the list of serious investigations President Trump has faced, including of himself, his campaign, his conduct as president, his business, his charity and his “university.”

Below, we break down the latest in each, along with how much trouble each could pose for Trump.

(Blake lists investigations of the Trump inaugural committee, Trump campaign [collusion], Trump himself [obstruction of justice], Trump himself [campaign finance violations], Trump Organization, Trump Foundation, and Trump University.)

Allyson Chiu reports ‘Queen of Condescending Applause’: Nancy Pelosi clapped at Trump and the Internet lost it:

Rising from her seat along with others in attendance, Pelosi began applauding with her arms oddly extended out toward the president. When Trump turned toward her and the pair locked eyes, Pelosi, still clapping, appeared to smirk.

Embed from Getty Images

(Honest to goodness, whatever else one could say, Pelosi surely does have Trump’s number.)

  How These Hummingbirds Turned Their Beaks Into Swords:

Culture, Politics

Dupes of Bogus Stories: Partisan or Biased?

by  •  •  Comments

Yesterday, I posted to a study that found a disproportionate amount bogus news accounts on Twitter came from elderly conservatives. (For reporting about the study, see Older, right-leaning Twitter users spread the most fake news in 2016, study finds.  For the study, see Science, Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, PDF link.)

What about those who are the dupes of bogus stories? Laura Hazard Owen asks Do people fall for fake news because they’re partisan or because they’re lazy? Researchers are divided: 

The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed.

Where the research splits. Here’s a helpful meta-analysis of the fake news analysis. For The New York Times, psychologists Gordon Pennycook and David Rand, who’ve done plenty of their own fake news research, write:

Much of the debate among researchers falls into two opposing camps. One group claims that our ability to reason is hijacked by our partisan convictions: that is, we’re prone to rationalization. The other group — to which the two of us belong — claims that the problem is that we often fail to exercise our critical faculties: that is, we’re mentally lazy.

However, recent research suggests a silver lining to the dispute: Both camps appear to be capturing an aspect of the problem. Once we understand how much of the problem is a result of rationalization and how much a result of laziness, and as we learn more about which factor plays a role in what types of situations, we’ll be better able to design policy solutions to help combat the problem.

There’s no obvious answer here, and either possibility – or a combination – represents a significant, but not insuperable, obstacle to a well-ordered politics.