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Daily Bread for 12.1.18

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of thirty-nine.  Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 15m 07s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 32.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1955, Montgomery, Alabama police arrest Rosa Parks for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger:

Parks moved, but toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the redesignated colored section.[30] Parks later said about being asked to move to the rear of the bus, “I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn’t go back.”[31] Blake said, “Why don’t you stand up?” Parks responded, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” Blake called the police to arrest Parks. When recalling the incident for Eyes on the Prize, a 1987 public television series on the Civil Rights Movement, Parks said, “When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ And he said, ‘Well, if you don’t stand up, I’m going to have to call the police and have you arrested.’ I said, ‘You may do that.'”[32]

 

Recommended for reading in full:

  Molly Beck and Patrick Marley report GOP seeks to limit Wisconsin early voting, strip powers from Tony Evers and Josh Kaul in lame-duck session:

Republican lawmakers are seeking to limit voter turnout and want to take away key powers from the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general before GOP Gov. Scott Walker leaves office in January.

The sweeping plan — to be taken up Tuesday — would remove Gov.-elect Tony Evers’ power to approve major actions by Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul and give that authority to Republican lawmakers.

The legislation is wide-ranging and would limit Evers’ power in a host of ways. His agencies would have less freedom to run their programs. He would not be able to ban guns from the state Capitol without the OK of lawmakers.

The power of the incoming attorney general also would be greatly diminished.

The Legislature — not the attorney general — would have control of how to spend money from court settlements. The recently created office of the solicitor general, which oversees high-profile litigation, would be eliminated.

Legislators would gain the power to intervene in any litigation when a state law is challenged, and they would have the ability to appoint their own private attorneys — at taxpayer expense — to handle the case instead of the attorney general.

“This bill is a full-employment bill for Republican law firms,” said Madison attorney Lester Pines, who often defends Democrats. “It will drive up the cost through the roof.”

Legislators would also have the ability to sign off on court settlements.

In another change that has broad implications for the lawsuit over the Affordable Care Act, the Legislature’s budget committee — rather than the governor —would get to decide whether to continue or drop legal actions.

  Lightning Struck Apollo 12…Twice – Here’s How Mission Control Reacted:

Foxconn Roundup: Indiana Layoffs & Automation Everywhere

A sensible person would never have listened to a Walker Administration operative in Whitewater tout Foxconn without laughing or looking about for a nearby tomato.  No sensible person would have made that operative a guest speaker at an annual dinner or written about the event without criticism.  (See, about that Greater Whitewater Committee dinner and that Daily Union story, A Sham News Story on Foxconn.)

I’m not a marketing man, but here’s an honest marketing slogan that Whitewater’s development gurus could apply to Foxconn (or any number of their local capital catalyst ideas):

WORTHLESS for WHITEWATER™

The latest:

Sarah Hauer reports Foxconn subsidiaries in Indiana are laying off workers after report that company is cutting costs:

On the heels of a report that Foxconn Technology Group will cut jobs and corporate costs, two subsidiaries of the company announced plans for layoffs Wednesday at a manufacturing facility in Indiana.

Two Foxconn subsidiaries plan to lay off 155 employees at a facility in Plainfield, Indiana, over the next three months, according to a report from the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Q-Edge Corp. and Foxconn/Hon Hai Logistics California LLC notified Indiana officials of the impending layoffs Wednesday, the weekly newspaper reported.

Mark Sommerhauser reports Foxconn executive: Company will tap ‘local talent’ in Wisconsin but also embrace automation:

Foxconn Technology Group aims to tap “local talent” in Wisconsin’s workforce but also intends to continue embracing automation, a U.S. executive for the company said Wednesday at a business event in Madison.

….

Speaking Wednesday, Yeung acknowledged Foxconn will continue to view automation as “something we embrace.” The company has drawn attention globally for its aggressive efforts to automate its manufacturing operations to reduce labor costs.

Yeung said much of Foxconn’s interest in artificial intelligence technology is about “how we can make things happen automatically.”

“For those of you who know Foxconn history, automation is part of our DNA,” Yeung said.

Previously10 Key Articles About FoxconnFoxconn as Alchemy: Magic Multipliers,  Foxconn Destroys Single-Family HomesFoxconn Devours Tens of Millions from State’s Road Repair BudgetThe Man Behind the Foxconn ProjectA Sham News Story on Foxconn, Another Pig at the TroughEven Foxconn’s Projections Show a Vulnerable (Replaceable) WorkforceFoxconn in Wisconsin: Not So High Tech After All, Foxconn’s Ambition is Automation, While Appeasing the Politically Ambitious, Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace ConditionsFoxconn’s Bait & SwitchFoxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying JobsThe Next Guest SpeakerTrump, 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, and Foxconn Roundup: Desperately Ill Edition.

Friday Catblogging: Cat Finds Friend In Firefighter Who Saved Her From California Wildfires

A firefighter tackling a deadly California wildfire made an unexpected friend in the form of an adorable, fluffy cat.

The cuddly feline perched on Capt. Ryan Coleman’s shoulder as he surveyed the devastation caused in Paradise by the Camp fire, which has killed dozens of people and left thousands homeless.

“Kitty rescue,” wrote Coleman, an engine captain at Fairview Valley Fire Department. “She just chilled on my neck and shoulders as I’d walk around.”

Via Cat Finds Friend In Firefighter Who Saved Her From California Wildfires.

Daily Bread for 11.30.18

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of thirty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 16m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 43.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1874, Winston Churchill is born.

 

 

Recommended for reading in full:

  Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold report The Trump Organization Planned To Give Vladimir Putin The $50 Million Penthouse In Trump Tower Moscow:

President Donald Trump’s company planned to give a $50 million penthouse at Trump Tower Moscow to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the company negotiated the luxury real estate development during the 2016 campaign, according to four people, one of them the originator of the plan.

  Carol D. Leonnig and Josh Dawsey report ‘Individual 1’: Trump emerges as a central subject of Mueller probe:

In two major developments this week, President Trump has been labeled in the parlance of criminal investigations as a major subject of interest, complete with an opaque legal code name: “Individual 1.”

New evidence from two separate fronts of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation casts fresh doubts on Trump’s version of key events involving Russia, signaling potential political and legal peril for the president. Investigators have now publicly cast Trump as a central figure of their probe into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign.

Together, the documents show investigators have evidence that Trump was in close contact with his lieutenants as they made outreach to both Russia and WikiLeaks — and that they tried to conceal the extent of their activities.

  Mikhaila Fogel, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, and Benjamin Wittes explain How to Read Michael Cohen’s Latest Plea and Its Revelations About the Trump Organization:

The account of Cohen’s conduct in the criminal information tracks closely with a May 2018 report by BuzzFeed News Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier on the Trump Tower Moscow project. Politico suggested Thursday, almost certainly correctly, that the person identified as “Individual 2” in court documents is Sater, the Russian-born businessman and former Trump associate whom Cormier and Leopold report was intimately involved in efforts to build Trump Tower Moscow. The only major piece of the story included in the criminal information that is missing from the May Buzzfeed article is the fact that Cohen successfully connected with Peskov’s office when he sent a blind email to Peskov’s general address for press inquiries.

  Peter Baker reports Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin, Citing Naval Clash Between Russia and UkraineYesterdayTrump, Putin have agreed to meet at G-20 summit on Saturday. 

(Russia seized these vessels on the 25th – there was no justification for agreeing to a meeting in the first place.) 

  Why Do Roosters Crow in the Morning?:

‘Family of Milwaukee man killed by Walworth deputy in botched drug sting files federal lawsuit’

Bruce Vielmetti reports Family of Milwaukee man killed by Walworth deputy in botched drug sting files federal lawsuit:

The family of a 21-year-old Milwaukee man killed by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy during a botched drug sting has sued the county, two municipal governments and several officers, who the family suspects destroyed dashcam video of the incident.

Christopher Davis was a passenger in his Pontiac Bonneville parked outside a Town of East Troy restaurant on Feb. 24, 2016, when the driver tried to take off when he saw marked police cars arriving.

Walworth County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Ortiz, who was assisting East Troy police in the case, fired at the car, killing Davis. Ortiz said he feared for his life because the car was heading toward him and was later ruled to have been justified in using deadly force.

….

The suit also charges several of the officers with failure to intervene and pull the plug on what they all knew was an inadequate plan for the drug arrest.

“When investigators searched for the video, they discovered that the dashcam video memory cards were removed, purportedly to download video footage for state investigators with the Department of Criminal Investigations,” the suit states.

No dashcam video was recovered, and the lawsuit states it is believed that some of the officers involved purposefully removed the cards from their vehicles and destroyed the evidence.

The suit cites nine causes of action, including wrongful death claims, and seeks unspecified damages. Davis’ estate is represented by Nathaniel Cade.

Lawsuits are often lengthy and outcomes uncertain; the complaint was filed on 11.25.18 as 2:18-cv-01846-JPS (pdf) with an accompanying exhibit of use-of-force procedures Walworth County is alleged to have violated (pdf).

Less than two years ago, Walworth County had to settle a fatal shooting in a federal case for $1.1 million.

The Walworth County Sheriff’s Department – in a relatively small rural county – has been involved in eight fatal shootings over roughly the last eight years.

Daily Bread for 11.29.18

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty-four.  Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 17m 55s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 54.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1929, Richard Byrd flies over the South Pole.

 

 

Recommended for reading in full:

  Rick Barrett and Andrew Mollica report Trump farm bailout checks coming to Wisconsin farmers vary from thousands to a few dollars:

Wisconsin is on track to lose more dairy farms this year than in any year since at least 2003, according to state agriculture department figures.

Wisconsin Farmers Union, based on a survey of its members, says a 55-cow dairy farm would receive a one-time payment of $725 from the Trump bailout program, but it will lose between $36,000 and $48,000 this year due to low milk prices.

An 80-cow dairy would get $889, barely enough to cover its electric bill for a month. Meanwhile, it will lose $35,000 this year.

(Emphasis added.)

  Julie K. Brown reports How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime:

On a muggy October morning in 2007, Miami’s top federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta, had a breakfast appointment with a former colleague, Washington, D.C., attorney Jay Lefkowitz.

….

His client, Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, 54, was accused of assembling a large, cult-like network of underage girls — with the help of young female recruiters — to coerce into having sex acts behind the walls of his opulent waterfront mansion as often as three times a day, the Town of Palm Beach police found.

….

Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life.

But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck — an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and the number of people involved.

Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal — called a non-prosecution agreement — essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes, according to a Miami Herald examination of thousands of emails, court documents and FBI records.

  Binyamin Applebaum reports For the American Economy, Storm Clouds on the Horizon:

Emerging signs of weakness in major economic sectors, including auto manufacturing, agriculture and home building, are prompting some forecasters to warn that one of the longest periods of economic growth in American history may be approaching the end of its run.

  Amie Ferris-Rotman reports Kremlin says Trump, Putin have agreed to meet at G-20 summit on Saturday:

The Kremlin said Thursday that Washington has confirmed a one-on-one meeting between President Trump and Russian leader Vladi­mir Putin at noon on Dec. 1 at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.

  The Watchmaker:

“You look at the sky and universe … everything is chaotic and just all over the place.” “But everything is exactly in its right place.”

Dairy Farmers’ Struggles

The AP reports Farm bankruptcies on the rise in Upper Midwest:

The number of farms filing for bankruptcy is increasing across the Upper Midwest, following low prices for corn, soybeans, milk and beef, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

The analysis found that 84 farms filed for bankruptcy in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana in the 12 months that ended in June. That’s more than double the number over the same period in 2013 and 2014.

“Current price levels and the trajectory of the current trends suggest that this trend has not yet seen a peak,” said Ron Wirtz, an analyst at the Minneapolis Fed.

This federal administration promised that “we’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning. you’re going to say, ‘Please Mr. President, I have a headache. Please, don’t win so much.”

These dairy farmers now have worse than headaches, and it isn’t from winning.

Daily Bread for 11.28.18

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of twenty-eight.  Sunrise is 7:03 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 19m 25s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

On this day in 1520, Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

Recommended for reading in full:

  Patrick Marley and Molly Back report Republicans to hold lame-duck session to limit Tony Evers and advance GOP priorities:

Republican lawmakers plan to hold a lame-duck session as early as next week to curb the incoming Democratic governor’s powers over state rules, add GOP appointees to a state board, and possibly move the 2020 presidential primary to help a conservative state Supreme Court justice.

Unlikely to be part of the session is the reason lawmakers claim to be calling it in the first place: a long-stalled $70 million subsidy package to save a Kimberly-Clark Corp. plant in the Fox Valley.

Republicans who control the Senate are still short at least six votes for that measure and may not be able to pass it, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said Tuesday.

  Dana Milbank observes The truth is finally catching up with Trump:

Trump may say that this is the “best economy” in history, that his “tariffs are the greatest.” But Americans can now see General Motors, facing some $700 million in higher steel prices because of tariffs, announcing on Monday that it is closing five factories and laying off nearly 15,000 workers. They can also see market gyrations, rising interest rates, rising debt and forecasts for slower growth.

Trump may say the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is a “hoax” by a “conflicted prosecutor gone rogue.” But, after a half-dozen convictions, Mueller’s prosecutors Monday promised a “detailed” court filing outlining lies told them by Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman. This, as The Post reported, means “prosecutors may know more about Manafort’s interactions than he realized, allowing them to catch him in alleged lies.”

Danielle Kaeding reports Climate Report Warns Of Declining Agricultural Production, Biodiversity:

A new federal report says climate change is expected to have wide-ranging impacts on the Midwest, including declines in agricultural production and biodiversity. The latest volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, NCA4, also details the threats climate change may pose to the region’s economy through increased flood risks and impacts to human health with degrading air and water quality.

Harry Littman asks What Was Paul Manafort Thinking?:

Two months ago, he struck a plea deal with Robert Mueller, the special counsel — he pleaded guilty but agreed to provide full and truthful information in exchange for a more lenient sentence. But according to a filing by Mr. Mueller’s team on Monday, Mr. Manafort lied to them repeatedly, and after multiple warnings. He is now in a far worse position than if he had never elected to cooperate, or if he had followed through on his agreement.

Meet Knickers, the 1,400 kg cow from Australia:

The Assault on Asylum Seekers

This federal administration, despite a leader who receives support from some conservative religious groups, acts against generations of legal, philosophical, and religious principles when it uses force against unarmed asylum seekers.

Father James Martin writes Stop the assault on asylum seekers:

Yesterday the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency fired tear gas at migrants trying to seek asylum in the United States at the border crossing at Tijuana. How did our country reach the point where we are tear-gassing mothers and children? One reason is because of the widespread myths about these brothers and sisters of ours.

Myth One: They are “illegals.” First, no one is an “illegal person” and seeking asylum is widely recognized as a universal human right. Current international agreements about asylum stemmed from a desire not to repeat the fate of Jews during the Second World War, who were denied entrance to many countries. And one requirement for asylum is to be physically present in the United States, which is exactly what these men, women and children from Central America are trying to do. In fact, it is illegal to dismiss asylum seekers without hearing their cases. In other words, they are trying to follow both international and U.S. law.

Myth Two: We cannot afford them. Many people believe that the United States and many European countries shelter a huge amount of refugees. This is false. The majority of the world’s refugees live in poor or middle-income nations. Eight out of 10 of the world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries. In 2016, for example, Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon hosted the highest number of refugees, a combined total of 5.4 million refugees. Of the 15 million refugees worldwide, 86 percent reside in developing countries. By contrast, the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is allowing only 30,000 refugees in next year. We can afford it.

Myth Three: They are mainly criminals. Claims that these migrants are criminals, that this exodus harbors terrorists from the Middle East, are unfounded. Are there a few criminals somehow mixed in? No more than with any other group in the past and that would include the immigrants that came to this country in the last 200 years: Italians, Irish, Germans and on and on. People fleeing Honduras, for example, who are mainly women and children, face some of the worst violence, inequality and corruption in the world: criminal gangs, rape and persecution, on top of poverty. There is a reason that they are risking everything to come here. They are fleeing crime, not bringing it.

So before you dismiss these people as illegals, as too expensive and as criminals, know the facts. And even if you want to dismiss these facts, remember what Jesus said about welcoming the stranger. He did not say welcome them when they had the right papers. He did not say welcome them when there was zero risk. He did not say welcome them when you could afford it. Jesus said, welcome them.

The 2019 Municipal Budget

The City of Whitewater will hold a public hearing this evening on its 2019 municipal budget.  It’s the budget for the city, at a time when a budget for the municipal government will have little chance of positively affecting the city’s economy, let alone that of even small rural townships ringing Whitewater.  The broader economic forces that grip small towns like Whitewater cannot be altered by a municipal budget, or through this Community Development Authority (as now constituted and directed).  Earlier on, at the beginning of the Great Recession, I argued for less of the municipality (city government), and more of the city (private growth without government regulation or subsidy), with some money set aside (there was never going to be much) for help for struggling families.

That would still be the right approach, but this city government, and others like it, have almost no room to divert resources: too much has been spent – and wasted, truly – on big capital projects, fly-by-night capital catalyst ideas, and look-and-feel programs that ignore how residents truly look and feel (it’s a low-income community).

In 2006 or 2007 (before the Great Recession in 12.2007), one might have said that the city’s economy faced three possible futures: a crash (highly improbable with a public campus in town), stagnation & relative decline (from too many of the wrong projects), or gradual improvement year over year (in confirmation of town notables’ boosterism).

Now, over a decade having passed, and other parts of the country having recovered well from the last recession, Whitewater faces the middle prospect of those three possibilities from a decade ago: stagnation & relative decline (continuing over the near term).  Time has held an incontrovertible referendum on the last decade’s approach.

It is a deep and profound loss that the city finds herself in this condition, but years inflated claims and happy-talk were never going to be a substitute for good policy.

Whitewater is a diverse place, with several large groups living and working alongside each other, and even as some struggle others of us are doing well.  Some have always understood that our own comfort is only that – our own.)

(The great failing of Whitewater’s self-designated leadership class has been believing that their experiences were all residents’ experiences.  There’s a difference between looking at the city and looking in a mirror.)

Yet even now, we may be hopeful about our medium and more distant future. No path is unending: relative decline – however painful in the short term for residents who always deserved better – will give way to a more realistic and productive community after present-day barnacles fall away.  There are, fortunately, green shoots slowly growing – harbingers of a more broadly prosperous community years from now. 

The City of Whitewater will soon adopt a 2019 budget, with a story or two written about it, but Whitewater has and will have the same economy before and after.

 

 

Daily Bread for 11.27.18

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of twenty-five.  Sunrise is 7:02 AM and sunset 4:23 PM, for 9h 20m 57s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 76.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM tonight, with the Finance Committee meeting thereafter at approximately 7 PM.

On this day in 1882, the Ringling brothers of Baraboo, Wisconsin perform their first show to an audience (in Mazomanie).

 

 

Recommended for reading in full:

  Mitch Smith and Monica Davey report Ex-President of Michigan State Charged With Lying About Nassar Case:

Lou Anna K. Simon, the former president of Michigan State University, was charged on Tuesday with two felonies, accused of lying to the police about her knowledge of sexual abuse committed by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar.

The charges were the latest blow against Michigan State, which employed Dr. Nassar for years as he preyed on young women, and a warning to other institutions about the consequences they could face for failing to stop abuse. As the scope of Dr. Nassar’s crimes has become clear, Michigan State leaders have been accused of ignoring warning signs, disrespecting victims, and covering up misconduct, and the university has been rocked by resignations, protests and a $500 million settlement.

  Molly Beck reports Ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos to serve 14-day prison sentence in Wisconsin:

A former adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign began serving a 14-day sentence at a medium-security federal prison in Oxford, Wisconsin, on Monday.

….

Papadopoulos was sentenced in September after he pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents over whether he had contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

 Max Boot observes The GOP is now the party of neo-Confederates:

It is hard to remember that Republicans were once the Party of Lincoln. But in the 1960s they sold out their birthright to court Southern voters smarting over desegregation. In more recent years, leaders such as George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney had been trying to appeal to minority and moderate voters. But with his pandering to white grievances, Trump has abetted the rise of the neo-Confederates.

Debbie Wu reports Apple iPhone Supplier Foxconn Planning Deep Cost Cuts:

 

The contract manufacturer aims to cut 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) from expenses in 2019 as it faces “a very difficult and competitive year,” according to an internal document obtained by Bloomberg. The company’s spending in the past 12 months is about NT$206 billion ($6.7 billion). The shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., as Foxconn is known in Taiwan and Asia, rose less than 1 percent in early trade in Taipei on Thursday.

 NASA’s InSight lander has now sent back pictures from Mars:

Low Growth as Decline

Forecasters are understandably interested in when America will experience another recession, but in Trump and the slowing economy, Jared Bernstein observes that a declining rate of growth can feel like a recession to those who experience the decline:

If I told you the real GDP growth rate was going to fall from 3.5 to 1.5 percent, you might not love that, but it probably doesn’t sound too scary. But if I told you growth was going to flip from 1.5 to -0.5 percent, you might run from the room screaming “recession!” Yet, in both cases, the decline in the growth rate was the same two percentage points.

I get it: Falling below zero isn’t anybody’s idea of a good time, but most people don’t think in GDP terms, and the effect of slower growth can be almost as bad as “negative growth.” For example, one thing that will happen if GDP slows as much as expected is that the unemployment rate will (after a lag) reverse course and start rising.

Bernstein’s analysis doesn’t only apply to national trends; it’s useful to explain Whitewater’s economic condition.  A community that, year after year, remains a low-income community will experience relative decline (as against percentage gains elsewhere) even if wages don’t fall in absolute terms.

Looking at Whitewater only by whether her economy will collapse as it once did (it won’t) ignores the more probable challenge that a low-wage community faces: not absolute, but relative, decline.

The Beauty & Opportunity of Ordinary Time

In the calendar of the Church, Ordinary Time is that part of the year between the seasons of Advent, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.  Perhaps it seems less momentous to some, but Ordinary Time is no less important, offering as it does “time for growth and maturation.” Far from being a lesser time, I find it beautiful and filled with opportunity. Less noticed, perhaps, but certainly not less important.  People live throughout a whole year, and not merely in particular seasons.  Advent approaches, and beautiful it always is, but the Ordinary Time to follow is no less important.

For policymakers, the secular equivalent of Ordinary Time (and it’s quite a climbdown, by the way, as the state will never be so important as private life) is the time without momentous events – without projects, budget hearings, or elections. However important projects, budget hearings, and elections are, they’re only part of the year.

Old Whitewater – a state of mind, not a person – has never seemed to care much for the secular equivalent of Ordinary Time: policy in the city has been clustered around big moments more than best practices, announcements over daily actions, and milestones over the distance between the miles.

That’s why something like after the referendum is better – for everyone – than before the referendum, or after the budget is better than before the budget, so to speak.

Now anyone who’s been long in this town knows that Old Whitewater prefers a high and narrow perimeter fence, where a few people set the terms of discussion.  From this perspective, mention of discussion and debate in ordinary life, outside the agenda of a few, truly looks more like a threat than an opportunity. It’s a measure of Old Whitewater’s social and cultural myopia that it sees America – vibrant, dynamic, inquisitive – this way.  Truly, it’s a deep misunderstanding of America’s political, legal, and social heritage.

Old Whitewater’s high water mark was some years ago, perhaps around 2007, just before the Great Recession began.  It’s taken years for the effects of that recession – effects still felt across Whitewater – to erode the boosterism that gripped the city in that earlier time.  Some still try to carry on as though nothing has changed these years since, but theirs is a feeble and futile effort.  Erosion works slowly yet decisively all the same.

America is admirable in her centuries-long development of liberty – of thought, discussion, and action.  Our best times – of hope and opportunity – aren’t only grand times – they’re also ordinary times.

There are still significant policy matters to address (at the university most notably), but not everything is a big event.

In the ordinary moments yet ahead, there’s good and positive work to be done: fixing up this, picking up that, tidying all up.

Film: Tuesday, November 27th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Ocean’s Eight

This Tuesday, November 27th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Ocean’s Eight  @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building:

Ocean’s Eight (Action/Comedy/Crime)
Tuesday, November 27 @ 12:30 pm
Rated PG-13. 1 hour, 50 minutes (2018)

Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) gathers an all-female crew to pull off an impossible heist at New York’s starstudded annual Met Gala. Including Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Dakota Fanning, and Marlo Thomas.

One can find more information about Ocean’s Eight at the Internet Movie Database.

Enjoy.