Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
Babbittry, Boosterism, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Culture, Daily Bread, Economy, Gaslighting, Hubris, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Local Government, Self-Dealing, Toadies
Daily Bread for 10.12.23: National Inflation Rate Holds Steady (and Local Implications)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with intermittent showers and a high of 56. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset 6:16 PM for 11h 11m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1614, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion. (No word on whether there were holes in his socks.)
While the best national prospect is lower inflation, steady inflation at the present level is the next-best option. That next-best option is where the national inflation measure is today. Jeanna Smialek reports Inflation Holds Steady, Key measures of consumer prices cooled in September:
American consumers experienced more moderate price increases across several key measures in September as costs climbed only gradually across a range of goods and services, the latest evidence that inflation is continuing to fade toward the Federal Reserve’s goal.
The Consumer Price Index climbed 3.7 percent from a year earlier, a report released Thursday showed. That matched the August reading, and it was slightly higher than the 3.6 percent that economists had predicted.
But after cutting out food and fuel prices, both of which jump around a lot, a “core” measure that tries to gauge underlying price trends climbed 4.1 percent, down from 4.3 percent previously.
Fed officials have been raising interest rates since March 2022 in an effort to slow economic growth and wrestle inflation under control. Inflation has been slowing for months, and the continued progress could add to their confidence that they do not need to lift borrowing costs more in order to wrangle price increases.
Whitewater has, before, seen improving national conditions that longtime local politicians and longtime local officials have failed to bring to the city. Whitewater’s special interests, operatives, and assorted flacks and sycophants have shamelessly left this city a low-income community by their own admission. See A Candid Admission from the Whitewater CDA and Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom (where longtime local types bemoan the lack of success that is their own fault.)
If the national economy continues to improve, someone in this city will need to ensure that Whitewater is properly situated.
That positioning will not come from longtime (in and out over decades!) CDA men and councilmembers. Yesterday’s shameless failures and excuse-makers will not bring tomorrow’s successes.
It’s wrong, fundamentally, to accord deference and respect to those aged policymakers whose main production has been in their own self-promotion. Some of us have done well over these last decades, but many of our fellow Whitewater residents most certainly have not kept pace. (This libertarian blogger has no personal complaints, so to speak, but sees all around many legitimate policy concerns.)
Those councilmembers or CDA men, old or new, who cannot see as much need to be shown the door.
Daily Bread, Marketing, University, UW Madison, UW System, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.11.23: Logos Succeed Only Because People Succeed
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 57. Sunrise is 7:04 and sunset 6:18 PM for 11h 14m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council and the Whitewater Unified School Board meet at 6 PM.
On this day in 1614, the New Netherland Company applies to the States General of the Netherlands for exclusive trading rights in what is now the northeastern United States.
The UW System wants you to know that it’s no longer the UW System. In a press release, [System President Jay] Rothman unveils new Universities of Wisconsin identity to represent 13 universities:
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – President Jay Rothman today unveiled the Universities of Wisconsin, a new name and identity that emphasizes the constellation of Wisconsin’s 13 public universities.
The Universities of Wisconsin will replace the University of Wisconsin System as the preferred way to describe the universities. The new name will be accompanied by new brand graphics, including a logo, mark, and map.
“The Universities of Wisconsin is the best way to describe our thirteen excellent universities,” Rothman said. “This new name rightfully shifts the focus from the System to the Universities that are providing opportunities to the students and families we serve.”
“We have thirteen universities with one mission – to make Wisconsin Future Ready. For All,” added Karen Walsh, Board of Regents President. “I am proud to represent the Universities of Wisconsin, and everyone in our state can take pride in all the universities do to improve lives and communities.”
Gov. Tony Evers issued a proclamation to mark the occasion as “Universities of Wisconsin Week.”
Rothman announced the new name and identity at UW-Eau Claire, accompanied by Chancellor Jim Schmidt.
The announcement included a new video featuring the voice of Rothman’s predecessor, former Gov. Tommy Thompson.
“I have often said the Universities of Wisconsin are one of the state’s greatest assets, aside from its people,” Thompson said. “I have always been – and always will be – a champion of our universities.”
Here’s that logo:
It’s attractive, but not so attractive as the men and women who make the UW schools successful, on-campus and off-campus. It is they, those many who are literally attractive to others. It is they who retain and gain others for their institutions.
The logo is only attractive for the efforts of many. Logos don’t imbue people with meaning; people imbue logos with meaning.
See also People Bring Color.
Hot air balloon takes off from festival, lands in backyard:
Daily Bread, Education, School District, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.10.23: Wisconsin Public School Enrollment Numbers Down Over 30,000 Students
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 57. Sunrise is 7:03 and sunset 6:20 PM for 11h 17m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1846, English astronomer William Lassell discovers Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune.
Corrinne Hess reports Wisconsin Public Schools have lost 32,000 students since 2019 (‘Lower birth rates, children moving to private, home schools have hurt public school enrollments’):
Wisconsin public schools have lost more than 32,000 students since 2019 due to an increase in private and home school enrollment and a decline in the birth rate, according to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
At the same time, there are between 4,500 and 11,600 “missing children” from schools.
Using public, private and home school enrollment data since the fall of 2019, the report found thousands of school age children were unaccounted for during the 2022-23 school year, accounting for nearly one-third of the public school enrollment decline.
“These students would seem to be missing either because the data on them was not collected or, worse, because they disconnected from the education system in Wisconsin entirely,” the policy forum report found.
Department of Public Instruction officials noted in the report that private and home schools are not held to the same standard as public schools when it comes to reporting enrollment data, so there are likely those students who are being educated, but are not captured by state counts.
Private and home schools don’t collect data on students until they reach first grade, which could be a reason for the decline of younger students. But Ari Brown, one of the authors of the policy forum report said enrollment in grades first through fourth are also down.
There could be many other reasons for children not being accounted for in Wisconsin schools, including truancy, children being kept home to watch younger siblings or migration out of state, Brown said.
Enrollment is a challenge for many districts across the state. See School Enrollment numbers raise question of missing students. For numbers specific to Whitewater, see Report of Preliminary Third Friday of September 2023 Student Count and Enrollment.
Testing the Landing Gear for All Scenarios for NASA’s Mars Sample Retrieval:
Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.9.23: Wisconsin Voting and Election Proposals
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 54. Sunrise is 7:01 and sunset 6:21 PM for 11h 19m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 22.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Planning Board meets at 6 PM, and her Library Board at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1812, during the war with Britain, American forces capture two British ships in a naval engagement on Lake Erie: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.
Hope Karnopp and Alex Groth report Ballot text alerts, preventing poll closures and other changes that could come to Wisconsin’s elections:
Clerks could begin processing absentee ballots a day early
A bill introduced by three Republican lawmakers would allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots the Monday before Election Day — something election officials have long asked for.
Supporters of the change cite the confusion that results when scores of absentee ballots are processed late at central count facilities and added to the returns all at once, sometimes changing which candidate is in the lead.
….
Impossible absentee ballot deadline could be fixed
A separate, bipartisan bill only includes the part about fixing the absentee deadline.
In presidential election years, the February primary — which determines which candidates get on the April ballot — happens after the deadline to send ballots for the April election.
Clerks say the current solution of sending out one ballot with only the presidential primary candidates and a second ballot adding other local races is confusing for voters.
The bill would keep a 47-day deadline for sending ballots to military and overseas voters, but change the deadline to 21 days for all other voters.
A Senate committee voted unanimously to advance that bill to a full Senate vote, but the Assembly committee still needs to hold an executive session to give it the green light.
Notre-Dame Cathedral’s Reopening Is Set for 2024 as Its Spire Emerges From Rubble:
Music
Monday Music: Autumn Leaves
by JOHN ADAMS •
Animals, Daily Bread, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.8.23: In Eau Claire, Miniature Horse Becomes Neighborhood Celebrity
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 54. Sunrise is 7:00 and sunset 6:23 PM for 11h 22m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 31.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1871, Peshtigo, Wisconsin was devastated by a fire that took 1,200 lives. The fire caused over $2 million in damages and destroyed 1.25 million acres of forest. This was the greatest human loss due to fire in the history of the United States. The Peshtigo Fire was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire which occurred on the same day, killing 250 people and lasting three days. While the Chicago fire is said to have been started by a cow kicking over a lantern, it is uncertain how the Peshtigo fire began.
In Eau Claire, a miniature horse becomes a neighborhood celebrity:
What’s the Connection Between Seahorses and Salt?:
Daily Bread, Economy, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.7.23: Wisconsin Manufacturers Less Pessimistic About the Economy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset 6:25 PM for 11h 25m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 40.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1780, American militia defeat royalist irregulars led by British major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina, often regarded as the turning point in the war’s Southern theater.
There are times when “less pessimistic” is enough. Joe Schulz reports Wisconsin manufacturers less pessimistic about the economy this year, but still face stresses (‘Workforce tops list of concerns from manufacturers, as inflation and supply chain worries lessen’):
Wisconsin manufacturers are less pessimistic about the economy than last year and remain optimistic about their companies, but workforce challenges continue to be a top concern even as inflation and supply chain worries lessen.
That’s according to a new report from the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing & Productivity, a public-private partnership that connects companies with resources. It surveyed 415 manufacturing executives from across the state and also took input from focus groups in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Menomonie.
Manufacturing stakeholders on Wednesday discussed the results at Titletown Tech in Green Bay. The survey found that 51 percent of manufacturers believe the business climate is headed in the right direction, but it’s not quite back to levels seen in 2021. That year, 55 percent said it was going in the right direction.
The survey shows that manufacturers are split regarding opinions on the health of Wisconsin’s economy. Twenty-three percent believe the state economy is growing; 36 percent say it’s mostly flat; 26 percent think it’s slowing down; and 12 percent believe it’s in a recession.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, America’s gross domestic product grew in the first two quarters of 2023 with annualized growth around 2 percent each quarter. After some forecasters predicted recessions in 2022 and 2023, forecasters at UCLA are predicting 2024 will be a weak year for economic growth, before rebounding in 2025.
America, CDA, City, Daily Bread, Economy, Employment, Local Government
Daily Bread for 10.6.23: National Economy Adds 336,000 Jobs in September
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:58 and sunset 6:26 PM for 11h 28m 28s of daytime. The moon is in its third quarter with 49.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1995, the first planet orbiting another sun, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered.
Talmon Joseph Smith reports The U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September:
In a sign of continued economic stamina, payrolls grew by 336,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday. The increase, almost double economists’ expectations, serves as a confirmation of the labor market’s vitality and the overall hardiness of an economy facing challenges from a variety of forces.
The unemployment rate was 3.8 percent, unchanged from August, as joblessness ticked back near record lows.
September was the 33rd consecutive month of job growth. Hiring figures for July and August were revised upward, with employers adding 119,000 more jobs to the labor market than previously recorded. But wage gains were cooler than expected, with average hourly earnings rising 0.2 percent from the previous month and 4.2 percent from September 2022.
Federal Reserve policymakers have tried to rein in both wages and prices by pulling up interest rates. Some financial analysts believe that continued resilience in wage gains and job growth could hasten a downturn by prompting the Fed to raise borrowing costs further during its next meeting in early November.
The unemployment rate has been below 4 percent since December 2021, a stretch not achieved since the late 1960s.
“This is an economy on fire,” said Samuel Rines, an economist and the managing director of Corbu, a financial research firm.
There’s a local aspect to these national gains: Will Whitewater continue on a new course, and enjoy some of these national gains, or will she fall back into the old stagnation of those long-time politicians, special interests, operatives, and catspaws who have time and again left Whitewater behind the national pace? Whitewater’s residents are as capable as any in America, yet Whitewater historically has not kept pace with it’s share of national successes.
Residents of Whitewater deserve as much as anyone in America, and would have more than they now have, if the serial failures and excuses over all these many years had not left the city with less. See Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom (about the time in 2020 just before the pandemic).
What’s in the Night Sky October 2023:
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, October 10th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, You Hurt My Feelings
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tuesday, Tuesday, October 10th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of You Hurt My Feelings @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Rated R (language)
1 hour, 33 minutes (2023)
A sharply observed comedy about a novelist whose long standing marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband give his honest reaction to her latest book. A film about trust, lies, and the things we say to the people we love most. Stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies.
One can find more information about You Hurt My Feelings at the Internet Movie Database.
Cats, Crime
Friday Catblogging: Lebanese Police Rescue Smuggled Lion Cubs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Animals, Attrition, Daily Bread, Nature
Daily Bread for 10.5.23: It’s Fat Bear Week in America
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:57 and sunset 6:28 PM for 11h 31m 19s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1813, The Army of the Northwest defeats a British and Native Canadian force threatening Detroit.
Whitewater is a place of outstanding natural beauty, with a fair number of wild mammals moving through, although I don’t believe that we’ve yet had a visit from bears. Nearby communities have had bear sightings, but we have not had bears in town. See Black bears in Wisconsin, here’s what you should know (“according to information found on a Facebook page titled: “Walworth County Scanner Updates,” black bears have been spotted, as reported by commenters on the site, near Whitewater and Elkhorn.”)
As it turns out, it’s Fat Bear Week in America. If it’s a celebratory week in America, then it’s also that week in Wisconsin; if Wisconsin, then Whitewater. About the week, Natalie B. Compton reports For Fat Bear Week, a close-up look at lifestyles of the fat and famous:
KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska — You won’t be able to hear a bear walking behind you here. Despite weighingaround1,000 pounds, the park’s 2,200 brown bears are inordinately quiet. But you will register their roars from deep in the woods. And the snapping of salmon spines when an apex predator cracks open a cold one.
Those sounds are particularly loud in a “bear vortex,” which is how wildlife guide and photographer Jon Kuiper describes being surrounded by four bears. A “bear-nado” means you’re at the center of six bears. Eight bears is a “bear-nami,” and “double digits is just like, ‘bear-icane,’” said Kuiper, 35, who’s earned the nickname “Bear Daddy.” He has a large tattoo of his favorite bear, 32 “Chunk,” on his right triceps.Kuiper works at Brooks Lodge at Brooks Camp, arguably the best place in the world to see swarms of bears up close.
We may not see any bears, fat or skinny, in Whitewater this week; we may see some in the years ahead.
(NB: a normal community is a place of many people and many activities. It’s possible, and now necessary more than ever, to balance admiration for the natural, the privately charitable, and the politically worthy while also committing to a long campaign against the politically unworthy. A well-individuated person submits the latter to a relentless critique so that it does not stain those former wonders and pursuits. Best of all, almost a blessing one might say: those better wonders and pursuits will sustain normal people in an attritional campaign against the politically unworthy.)
France races to stamp out bedbugs before Olympics:
City, Common Council, Council Leadership, Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.4.23: The Shape of Decline to Come (and How to Carry On)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:56 and sunset 6:30 PM for 11h 34m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1795, Napoleon first rises to prominence by suppressing counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the National Convention.
There are those wondering, today, what last night’s meeting of the Whitewater Common Council means for the city. A few offerings:
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It was inevitable, or nearly so, that the Whitewater Common Council would hire a third attorney, at municipal expense, to counsel them in their ill-advised posture toward Whitewater’s current city manager. One is reminded of a passage from Proverbs: ‘Like a dog going back to his vomit, a fool repeats his folly.’ Over these last weeks since August, I’ve contended in correspondence or conversation with residents that this council would most certainly hire a third attorney.
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A key point about this council majority: bad often goes to worse, and that’s because bad seldom recognizes itself. It’s something like the contention that the first condition of a barbarian is that he doesn’t know he’s a barbarian. That’s this majority: about as dense and dim a group as this city has or could produce. It’s as though someone called central casting and asked for a mix of deep ignorance and unmerited arrogance. Credit where credit is due: if someone did ask for those types, then central casting sure delivered for Whitewater!
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There’s no point in expecting good judgment from this crew; that was never going to happen. Nothing but nothing a serious person could say or write would ever matter to these ridiculous people. One speaks and writes for others; neither in public affairs nor at table would anyone profitably converse with the members of this majority.
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Since April, this council majority has become an impediment to its own city.
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No normal professional would stay working for a city where the council majority is a collection of mediocrities and misfits. Of course normal people will head for the door — expect much more of this.
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For some of these council members, the exodus of others is like an unconfessed goal, so that there is no one better to make them look inevitably worse by comparison. Some people prefer to rule in dirt rather than serve in cleanliness.
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No one who sees a few clips of this council majority would want to work for this city. As long as this council majority persists, Whitewater (including the already execrable CDA) will never be able to hire good employees. Losers, liars, layabouts, and liquor pigs are all we will be able to attract. The former council majority put together good hires and a good team; it’s all downhill for hiring since April.
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You broke it, you bought it. The city should look elsewhere for success and prosperity, but it’s a sad truth that the portion of a libertarian’s time focused on the Whitewater Common Council will yield fruitful examples of their inadequacies. There’s something to be said for the role of happy warrior. Never a dull moment.
The first step is to recognize that this council majority has nothing good to offer Whitewater; the next step is to turn toward those others in the city who offer in their private efforts incomparably more.
There is a way out for the community, itself, however, as this libertarian blogger has written repeatedly: turn away from this inadequate and addled band on council, and work to build a better city apart from them. They represent the bottom of Whitewater; look elsewhere for the top. There is no better community in which to be, embarrassment and inadequacy of this common council notwithstanding. I’ve written this way for years; it’s never been more true than now.
On that better private course, see Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day, Something Transcendent, and in the Meantime, An Oasis Strategy, The Community Space, People Bring Color. and From Government, Failure is Both Loss and Distraction.
Is This the Best Salt In the World?:
City, Common Council, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Language
Daily Bread for 10.3.23: What Direct and Clear Looks Like
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:55 and sunset 6:32 PM for 11h 37m 03s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets tonight beginning at 6:30 PM
On this day in 1952, the United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon in the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, to become the world’s third nuclear power.
Consider the following account, from Matt Levine’s Money Stuff column, of the allegations against crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried:
The essential charges against Sam Bankman-Fried are:
- Customers deposited billions of dollars at his crypto exchange, FTX, to buy crypto.
- Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, secretly took that money to gamble on crypto tokens and make weird illiquid venture investments.
- Also a lot of the money seems to have been siphoned off to make political donations, buy celebrity endorsements, pay for Bahamas real estate for Bankman-Fried and his family, etc.
- When customers started asking for their money back last November, it wasn’t there.
This is bad! The basic combination of “the customers’ money is gone” and “you lived in a $30 million penthouse” is really killer. That’s the most basic outline of a financial fraud: The customers don’t have the money anymore, and you do.
But Bankman-Fried is going to trial tomorrow [10.3], and here’s Michael Lewis on 60 Minutes being asked “do you think he knowingly stole customers’ money” and answering “put that way, no.” So I suppose there will be a defense.
What is the defense? I think the defense is roughly: “The crypto market crashed, there was a run on the bank, and the run on the bank is what evaporated the customers’ money. It was an accident, perhaps a careless accident, but not theft.”[1] This is a very hard defense to pull off!
The first thing that is hard about it is that it is not at all intuitive that a “run on the bank” should be possible at a crypto exchange like FTX. The intuitive way for a crypto exchange to work is:
I deposit $100.
I buy $100 of Bitcoin on the exchange.
The exchange has $100 of Bitcoin earmarked for me.
When I go to withdraw my $100 of Bitcoin, if it’s not there, that means someone stole it.
Levine goes on in greater detail, but he ably presents the allegations involving a crypto exchange and a trading firm (often abstruse subjects) succinctly and clearly.
In doing so, he does credit to himself and shows respect to his readers.
It should not be hard for small-town politicians in Whitewater, Wisconsin to speak as succinctly and clearly to residents about local topics.
Video captures fireball lighting up Oxford sky: