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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.7.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater will be warm and mostly sunny, with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:40 and sunset 8:02, for 14h 22m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 88.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

How about something delicious in the morning? I’d say this would do the trick:

See, also, Melissa Clark’s recipe @ NYT.

On this day in 1864, soldiers from Wisconsin are among others who saw an end to intense fighting at the Battle of the Wilderness:

1864 – (Civil War) Battle of the Wilderness Ended
he fighting on May 5-7, 1864, produced nearly 30,000 casualties without giving either side a clear victory. The 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fought at the Battle of the Wilderness.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Thursday game in its Maternity Test series:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8
Maternity Test
There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.
Example:
SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING
Answer:
Carol & Bobby (Brady)
What to Submit:
Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, May 7
CA-OLING / P-STURE / IN-URABLE / SHRIN-

Government Spending, Libertarians, Local Government, State Government

The Well Runs Dry

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As expected, a weak economy, despite four years of talk about spending to create jobs, jobs, jobs means that Wisconsin can expect no additional state revenue to lessen the impact of cuts to education, etc. 

In fact, revenue projections are below estimates.

Here’s the news from the Journal Sentinel this morning (emphasis added):

Madison — State lawmakers can’t count on any additional money to bail them out of budget cuts proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office reported Wednesday.

For months, the GOP governor and Republicans who run the Legislature have said they believed the state would take in more money over the next two years than originally projected, allowing them to prevent or mitigate cuts proposed by Walker for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin System.

But the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported Wednesday that it believed the initial estimates would hold.

In a memo to lawmakers, Bob Lang, the veteran head of the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office, said that tax revenues for this fiscal year are actually running slightly behind projections.

During this fiscal year ending on June 30, tax revenues were expected to grow by 3.7% and so far they are growing at a rate of 3.4%, the fiscal bureau reported.

This year may yet pick up slightly but meanwhile the national economy now appears set to grow at a slower rate than expected over the 2015-’17 budget, leaving no reason to look for more money, Lang reported.

That means lawmakers will have to stick with Walker’s cuts or find others, raise taxes or fees or use borrowing and accounting tricks or some combination of those things. Republican leaders have stood firmly against raising taxes, leaving them few sustainable options except to make cuts….

This is a problem for Wisconsin all around: (1) less for what’s most needed, (2) no appetite among state leaders for reducing what they have mistakenly prioritized, and (3) a climate in which any cuts are stigmatized as bad cuts.

That’s where big-government conservatism has left this state: a stagnant economy, a continuing state fiscal mess, spending and cutting priorities that most residents reject, and no certainty of much better next year, either.

For those who genuinely want smaller government, and who would have cut hundreds of millions in big-ticket road-building, who would have eliminated the WEDC, who would have reduced the size of the state workforce rather than shift costs locally, these are frustrating times. 

This budget could have been balanced differently.  Yet here we are.

To each and every big-government conservative, to each and every Republican who has been more like Nixon than Goldwater, to every proud so-called conservative in Whitewater who’s extended his clammy hands for another treat, gobbling whatever he could find: you have only yourselves to blame for this. You betrayed better principles for nothing more than a few lying headlines in an unread local paper.

Handed a golden opportunity after Gov. Doyle, these few have thrown it away on big spending of a different kind. 

Those of us, libertarians and others who have never been under the sway of a major political party, who have always believed truly and sincerely in smaller, limited government, will be here long after this mediocre class of self-promoters and self-dealers finds all its work consigned to the trash. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.6.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have an even chance of rain today, and a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 5:41 and sunset 8:01, for 14h 19m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 94.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

It’s Orson Welles’s birthday:

George Orson Welles … May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar; in radio, the 1938 broadcast “The War of the Worlds“, one of the most famous in the history of radio; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films.

Welles directed a number of high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded theMercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells‘ novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated,[2] they rocketed Welles to notoriety.

His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which he co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only 13 full-length films in his career. Because of this, he struggled for creative control from the major film studios, and his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased. His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such aschiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. He has been praised as a major creative force and as “the ultimate auteur“.[3]:6 Welles followed up Citizen Kane with critically acclaimed films including The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 and Touch of Evil in 1958. Although the three are generally considered his greatest works, some film critics have also argued other works of his, such as The Lady from Shanghai (1947)[4] and Chimes at Midnight (1966),[5] are under-appreciated.

In 2002, Welles was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics,[6][7] and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time.[8] Well known for his baritone voice,[9] Welles was a well-regarded actor in radio and film, a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor, and an accomplished magician noted for presenting troop variety showsin the war years.

On this day in 1947, Wisconsin shakes:

On this date an earthquake centered due south of Milwaukee near the shore of Lake Michigan, caused minor damage but no major injuries. The tremor shook buildings and rattled windows in many communities throughout southeastern Wisconsin. There were reports of broken windows in Kenosha. The shock was felt from Sheboygan to the Wisconsin – Illinois border. [Source: U.S.G.S. Earthquake Hazards Program]

Here’s the Wednesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8
Maternity Test
There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.
Example:
SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING
Answer:
Carol & Bobby (Brady)
What to Submit:
Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, May 6
OVERPA-S / PR-POSITION / PIC- / BLO-DIES

City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, Poverty, University, WEDC, Wisconsin

Wisconsin on Pace for Most Layoff Notifications Since WEDC Created

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WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

Now I thought, as it’s what I have heard again, again, and again, that the WEDC was the Laser-Focused Semi-Private Job Creator of Wisconsin™. 

How odd, then, to read that since the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s inception, Wisconsin is on pace for more job layoffs than ever. 

What a shock: who would have imagined that the grand claims of cronyism would meet their refutation in actual human experience?

When the first round of WEDC funding hit Whitewater (it’s been many trips to the trough since), one heard how this was to be a grand and astonishing triumph for the city.

It was, instead, what anyone might have guessed: water on sand, negligible and of no benefit to the many thousands of this city. 

The P.R. men, 501(c)(6) big-business lobby, and sycophantic officials who peddle these shoddy goods will keep trying.

It is impossible, nonetheless, that dollops of money preferentially allocated will produce a meaningful, lasting result for Whitewater. 

That’s why I have described these white-collar welfare schemes as an expression of a gutter ideology – they are such, as they are both intellectually, ethically, and in practice inferior to alternative methods of allocation.  (See, along these lines, Local Crony Capitalism via the WEDC (and similar schemes).)

I have every confidence in allocation of capital, goods and labor through free markets. 

However, to be clear, almost any allocation to the poor would be vastly better on moral and practical grounds than a compulsory allocation through taxes to well-fed, avaricious, big-business leaders and their unctuous flacks.

Jobs, jobs, jobs?  Not through the WEDC.

Film

Film: F for Fake

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Toward the end of his career, Orson Welles filmed F for Fake, about frauds of various kinds. The full movie is embedded below. One can’t say it’s his best film, but it is among the most intriguing films Welles or anyone else ever made.

Odd, but captivating:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.5.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Whitewater’s Tuesday will be rainy with a high of fifty-five. Sunrise is 5:42 and sunset 8:00, for 14h 17m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets today at 6:15 PM, and Common Council at 6:30 PM.

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo, a day that not only commemorates a Mexican victory over France’s Napoleon III, but also a victory that likely aided the Union against the Confederacy:

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a celebration held on May 5. It is celebrated in the United States[1] and in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla,[note 1][2][3][4] where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla(English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla).[5][6][7] Mexican Americans also often see the day as a source of pride; one way they can honor their ethnicity is to celebrate this day.[8]

The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army‘s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.[3][9] In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken to be Mexico’s Independence Day—the most important national holiday in Mexico—which is celebrated on September 16.[3][10]

….Donald W. Miles states, “At the time, there were fears in the United States that the French would use Mexico as a base to back the Confederacy, so President Lincoln and his Secretary of State went out of their way to appear ‘neutral’ in the Mexican situation. They did not want to take on the French and the Confederates at the same time”.[30] Dr. Miles goes on to explain that “Napoleon III had hesitated to take on the United States directly, but now the news of the Civil War changed everything”.[31] It meant that the Americans would be occupied with their Civil War for some time. Upon hearing the Spaniards and the British had sailed off to grab the customs house in Veracruz to start collecting their duties, Napoleon decided he would not only send the French navy, but would also start looking for someone to place as emperor in Mexico. He would then use Mexico as a base to help the Confederates win their war against the Union. Napoleon saw this as an opportunity not to be missed.[31]

Historian Justo Sierra has written in his Political Evolution of the Mexican People, that had Mexico not defeated the French in Puebla on May 5, 1862, France would have gone to the aid of the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War and the United States’ destiny would have been different.[32][33]

Ignacio Gonzalez wrote, “Some scholars, including José Antonio Burciaga, believe that had the French defeated México at Puebla, France would have aided the South in the American Civil War in order to free Southern ports of the Union Blockade. During this time, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was enjoying success, and French intervention could have had an impact on the Civil War.”[21]

Mexico and the United States are both better for Napoleon III’s defeat on 5.5.1862.

Here’s the second day of Puzzability‘s Maternity Test series:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8
Maternity Test
There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.
Example:
SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING
Answer:
Carol & Bobby (Brady)
What to Submit:
Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, May 5
-UGFUL / OVERST-FFED / COMME-CE / HO-TED

City, Government Spending, Health, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN

Looking at the 12.3.13 Digester Presentation

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WGTB logo PNG 112x89 Post 4 in a series.

12.3.13 Whitewater WI Common Council Digester Importation Discussion from John Adams on Vimeo.

I promised last week a look at the December 3, 2013 digester presentation, from Whitewater’s Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel, and City Manager Cameron Clapper.

In that presentation (not so long ago, only about a year-and a-half) and in remarks thereafter, it’s been clear that a significant component of a wastewater upgrade project would be the use of a local digester to import waste into Whitewater from other cities that don’t want it.

And yet, even as late as March 2015, City Manager Clapper contended that work on the digester was simply about upgrading existing facilities (emphasis added):

Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade Clarification

….The truth is that the wastewater treatment facility already has two anaerobic digesters on site. The existing digesters were installed when the plant was built in the early 1980s. These digesters have been fully functional and in use for 30 years. What is under consideration as part of the project is the installation of additional equipment within the digesters that would increase operational efficiency within the digesters….

There’s no mention of importation at all.

Consider, however, how Whitewater officials have, in fact, sometimes (but not so much recently, or as widely) described use of digesters for importing waste from other cities that don’t want it.

From the video embedded above, and the relevant Council packet portion below, one quickly sees that Messrs. Clapper and Reel have been consistent boosters for waste importation, far beyond that naturally generated in Whitewater, from other places looking for Whitewater to manage their filth.

(The time stamps that I cite are from the embedded video above. The original video of the full council meeting is online at https://vimeo.com/81042136; the full Council packet may be found at http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/agendas/common_council/2013/Complete_Packet_2013-1203d.pdf.)

Presentation, Reel @ 03:16:

This project would be separate….This would be a standalone project.

Presentation, Reel @ 04:56:

After that [during a 11.5.13 meeting] we actually met with a contractor, a liquid waste hauler, contractor, met with that same group, to kinda gauge interest and also volumes that might potentially be available for a project like this.

Presentation, Reel @ 05:23:

So, what does waste energy look like for the City of Whitewater? It would be, we would be, essentially seeking, some of the basic, we would be seeking additional waste streams.

Presentation, Reel @ 14:29:

Success will hinge on availability and diversity of outside waste….City will be responsible to obtain waste streams and secure long term agreements.

Presentation, Clapper @ 22:42:

There are other communities that have digesters that do some kind of mixture but nobody that’s taking purely industrial-strength waste like we’re looking into…very few.

Packet, Slide 7:

This is a fundamental shift in our perception of Wastewater Facilities.

On this, one can agree – It would be a fundamental shift, as small-town Whitewater would become a net waste importer.

Now, I’ve been asked if I’m concerned about the pace of municipal efforts on this project (and the sales-like presentations Whitewater officials are making to hand-picked groups).

The broadest answer is that the quality of this project does not rest in the selling of it, although these presentations represent an additional if lesser indication of the way Messrs. Clapper and Reel feel the need to speak to audiences selectively about it.

The questions about this proposal that are economic, fiscal, environmental, health-related, and that concern preferential dealing will only grow greater.

So, a rush to approve changes very little for advocates this plan; accountability would likely prove a persistent, years-long question for them.

A sound inquiry should not be rushed. Even from an early stage, and throughout, this plan has been about more than a local-use upgrade.

Original Council Common Presentation, 12.3.13
Agenda http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/agendas/common_council/2013/Complete_Packet_2013-1203d.pdf
Minutes http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/minutes/common_council/2013/2013-1203.pdf
Full Council Video https://vimeo.com/81042136

WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.

Next Monday: Parsing a Presentation.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.4.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be cloudy with a high of seventy-one. Sunrise today is 5:43 and sunset 7:59, for 14h 15m 10s of daytime. It’s a full moon today.

Google’s website commemorates the 360th birthday of Bartolomeo Cristofori, born this day on 1655 in Venice, and widely credited with inventing the piano:

The search engine Google is showing this interactive animated Doodle on May 4th, 2015 for celebrating 360th Birthday of Bartolomeo Cristofori.

Cristofori was an Italian musical instrument maker credited with inventing the piano. One of his biggest innovations was creating a hammer mechanism that struck the strings on a keyboard to create sound. The use of a hammer made it possible to produce softer or louder sounds depending upon how light or hard a player pressed on the keys.

Cristofori was born on May 4, 1655 in Padua in the Republic of Venice

The total number of pianos built by Cristofori is unknown. Only three survive today, all dating from the 1720s.

The piano as built by Cristofori in the 1720s boasted almost all of the features of the modern instrument. It differed in being of very light construction, lacking a metal frame; this meant that it could not produce an especially loud tone. This continued to be the rule for pianos until around 1820, when iron bracing was first introduced.
Read more about Piano at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano
Read more about Bartolomeo Cristofori at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolom…
Read https://www.google.com/doodles/bartol… to know more about “who invented the Piano” Google Doodle.

On this day in 1873, Wisconsin Gov. John James Blaine is born:

On this date John James Blaine was born in the town of Wingville in Grant County. A politician, governor, and U.S. Senator, Blaine attended public schools in Montfort, and received a law degree from Northern Indiana University. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1897 and practiced briefly in Montfort before settling in Boscobel.

A Progressive Republican, he served as Boscobel’s mayor for four terms and was elected to the State Senate in 1909. It was there that he gained prominence by leading investigations into the campaign expenditures of Wisconsin Senator Isaac Stephenson, attempting to block Stephenson’s re-election. A zealous advocate of progressivism and the ideals embraced by Robert M. La Follette Sr., Blaine was one of the organizers and vice-president of the Wilson National Progressive Republican League. After running unsuccessfully for governor in 1914, Blaine was elected state attorney in 1918.

In 1921, he became governor and held this office for three consecutive terms. During his tenure Blaine promoted progressive labor legislation, fostered a campaign to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, and signed the nation’s first law giving equal rights to women. In 1926, he won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate where he served from 1927 to 1933, becoming one of the leaders in the effort to repeal prohibition. He died on April 16, 1934. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, SHSW 1960, pg. 39]

Puzzability has a new weekly series beginning today, entitled, Maternity Test:

This Week’s Game — May 4-8
Maternity Test
There’s a bit of a generation gap this Mother’s Day week. Each day’s clue is a series of words, each with one letter replaced by a dash. Fill in the missing letters to make a word—one way to get the first (or only) name of a famous mother, real or fictional, and another way to get the name of a child of hers.
Example:
SIDE-AR / BL-CKHEAD / A-OUND / O-LONG / -EARNING
Answer:
Carol & Bobby (Brady)
What to Submit:
Submit the two first names, with the mother first (as “Carol & Bobby” in the example), for your answer.
Monday, May 4
-AWBREAKER / CONSTR-CTION / DOWNSI-E / M-STERY

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.3.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be partly sunny, with a high of eighty. There’s a one-in-five chance of morning showers. Sunrise is 5:54 and sunset 7:58, for 14h 12m 44s of daytime. We have a full moon today.

Friday’s FW poll asked whether Molly Schuyler’s scarfing of three steak dinners in twenty minutes, as part of a food-eating contest, was an example of vile gluttony or valiant competition. A clear majority of respondents, 73.68%, labeled Ms. Schuyler’s efforts vile gluttony.

On this day in 1952, Lt. Col. Joseph Fletcher does something no one had, indisputably, ever done before:

HighFlight-OperationOilDrum1

A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict of California becomes the first aircraft to land on the North Pole. A moment later, Fletcher climbed out of the plane and walked to the exact geographic North Pole, probably the first person in history to do so.

In the early 20th century, American explorers Robert Peary and Dr. Frederick Cook, both claiming to have separately reached the North Pole by land, publicly disputed each other’s claims. In 1911, Congress formally recognized Peary’s claim. In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but that Peary came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles short. In 1952, Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher was the first person to undisputedly stand on the North Pole. Standing alongside Fletcher on the top of the world was Dr. Albert P. Crary, a scientist who in 1961 traveled to the South Pole by motorized vehicle, becoming the first person in history to have stood on both poles.