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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Cats, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Entitlement, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Sycophancy, Tantrums, That Which Paved the Way, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.21.23: What’s Left of Old Whitewater’s Politicians Put Past Practice Ahead of Principle or Reason

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:41 AM and sunset 6:53 PM for 12h 11m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 36.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1780, Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point.

Consider a sign in front of a church, listing only three words: FAITH. REASON. TRADITION. (Another ordering of these words would alter the positions of the first two, as Martin Albl’s Reason, Faith, Tradition does. A secular equivalent for politics or business might simply be Principle, Reason, Past Practice.) 

These orderings share one characteristic: they place tradition or practice last. Other qualities come first: a set of beliefs or principles and the application of human reason to them.

That’s not how Old Whitewater’s remaining, aged politicians carry on. For that ilk, tradition — business as usual— always comes first.

There are likely two reasons that they prioritize tradition.

First, it suits their ability to control institutions when they insist that the future must look like their own (admitted failed) past practices. It is they who are most familiar with their own dull conduct, so it is they who are most likely to continue along those same lines. (Indeed, competitive and dynamic people would find nothing useful from the aged men on the Community Development Authority or from the man who now sits both on the CDA and as Common Council president.)

Old Whitewater’s excuse-making failures may delight in themselves, but sharp people have no interest in letting that skunk smell permeate their clothes.

This conveniently leaves Whitewater’s political institutions in the hands of incompetent, but self-satisfied, old men.

Second, tradition is the easiest to master within a trio of principle, reason, and tradition. It simply requires less work. To be candid, even an illiterate or semi-literate person could follow ‘business as usual’ without much effort. This shows in both the old men of the CDA and Common Council: even after decades with the city in their geriatric grip, they struggle to follow an agenda or comply with state statutes and local ordinances. They’re entitled, and their entitlement makes them, and keeps them, dull.

America, Wisconsin, and Whitewater are filled with creative, dynamic, hardworking people. Sadly, they’re not to be found among those who run Whitewater’s Common Council or its Community Development Authority. 

Streets turn into rivers as Typhoon Haikui inundates China’s Fujian:

Daily Bread, Genocide, Putin, Russia, Ukraine

Daily Bread for 9.20.23: Snyder on Russia’s Genocidal Project in Ukraine

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater be cloudy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:40 AM and sunset 6:55 PM for 12h 14m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition which ultimately culminates in the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Much has been said about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and among the best of those words one finds the writings of Timothy Snyder. Thoughtful consideration during a distinguished career allows Snyder to describe concisely and aptly Russia’s invasion. In only two minutes, Snyder explains the genocidal nature of the Russian invasion: 

https://twitter.com/mattia_n/status/1701339751247151451

That’s the Russian project, succinctly stated. Those who support or excuse Russian actions support or excuse genocide.

Hurricane Lee’s eye lit up by lightning in ominous view from plane:

An amazing view of Hurricane Lee’s eye was captured during an Air Force Reserve’s Hurricane Hunters flight on Sept. 7, 2023. The eye was lit up by several lightning flashes. Video features the song “Broken Glass” by Logan Spaleta: https://www.loganspaleta.com/music

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Entitlement, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Sycophancy, Tantrums, That Which Paved the Way, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.19.23: There’s a Reason Some Local Politicians Have No Platform

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see morning rain with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 6:57 PM for 12h 17m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 18% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM. 

On this day in 1982, Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.

It shouldn’t be hard — because it’s not hard — for a person of normal ability to write what he or she believes about politics, and of a platform for his or her town’s betterment. See A Sketch on Libertarianism, Libertarians, Bleeding-Heart Libertarians, and All that Lies Beyond, What Ails, What Heals, and Heals & Ails, General & Particular, Public & Private.

And so, and so, if it’s not hard, why doesn’t it happen more in local government? There are three principal reasons elected leaders don’t establish a clear platform: inability, entitlement, or concealed purpose. 

Inability, however, rare among ordinary people, sometimes afflicts a political leader who’s not up to leadership. One occasionally finds an inarticulate person in a position of leadership on city councils or school boards. Instead of a plain description, an inarticulate man or woman will substitute a vacuous phrase. If a student at Whitewater High School needs to write a term paper in descriptive English, it’s not too much to ask the same of those on the Whitewater Common Council.

Entitlement is a second reason that politicians don’t state their views and goals plainly. They don’t do so because they don’t feel they need to do so. See Whitewater Needs Neither a King Nor a Mind Reader. This entitlement leads to laziness, where the politicians so afflicted don’t read agendas, don’t follow established deadlines, and look for ways to make it easier only on themselves. See Scenes from a Council Meeting (Responsibility).  

Entitlement Doesn’t Recognize Limits and this entitlement leads to Overreach.

Concealed purpose is a third reason that elected leaders don’t announce a platform of their views. Those in this third category are sycophants of special interests, and (needless to say) they are not about to declare a platform that would prevent them from shifting quickly in support of those special interests’ changing needs. Why have your own views when, in the end, those views might conflict with the interests that tell you what to think and say? (Worse, of course: why think for yourself when you act as though the only thoughts worth having come from those special interests?) See Who Holds the Leash?

A politician can carry on this way, but cannot while doing so effectively represent the interests of many thousands.

The Unexpected Origin of the Michelin Star:

Agriculture, Climate, Daily Bread, Weather

Daily Bread for 9.18.23: Despite Drought, Wisconsin Apple and Grape Crops Look Good

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 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 6:38 AM and sunset 6:58 PM for 12h 20m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 11.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

  There’s some good agricultural news despite an ongoing Wisconsin drought. Hope Kirwan reports Wisconsin apple, grape growers report ‘beautiful’ crop this fall despite ongoing drought (‘Irrigation systems helped many fruit producers make up for lack of rainfall this summer’):

While the drought caused concern for field crop growers, Wisconsin fruit producers say the dry weather was actually a good thing for many trees and vines.

[Manager of Sunrise Orchards in Gays Mills, Sandy] Jeffers said they had a large enough harvest to be able to sell to other orchards in the area that were more affected by the drought. Thanks to irrigation, their fruit was the usual size. But she said the apples would have been smaller than most consumers want if they did not have constant watering.

She said harvest has been slightly earlier than normal for most varieties. But local customers have also been seeking out their apples and other products earlier than usual.

“They’re ready to move on to the next season,” she said. “It’s a little bit cooler. I’ve had a few phone calls already asking me if the trees have started changing colors yet.”

Bill Roethle, owner of Hillside Apples in Door County, said his apple trees had a great bloom this spring, with pollination lasting much longer than usual at his orchard. He said that means each tree has plenty of apples, and cool weather at night has helped the fruit reach its final stages.

“It looks like the color, the red in the apples, is coming on very well,” he said. “Some years, it just doesn’t come. Some years it comes easy.”

Massive filament eruption on Sun captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:

Adventure, Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.17.23: Twilight Paddle on the Upper Yahara River

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 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see morning showers and afternoon sunshine with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset 7:00 PM for 12h 23m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1787, the United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.

Twilight Paddle on the Upper Yahara River:

Gridlock and Confusion: On the Road With Spanish Rescuers in Morocco:

Agriculture, AI, Daily Bread, Technology

Daily Bread for 9.16.23: Weed-Killing AI Drones May Be the Future of Farming

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 Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with evening showers and a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:36 AM and sunset 7:02 PM for 12h 26m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1959, the first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

 Weed-killing AI drones may be the future of farming:

Combating weeds in a sustainable way is more urgent than ever. Global warming is supercharging their growth as they compete with crops for nutrients, and every drop of chemical sprayed comes with an environmental cost. Now startups like Precision AI are trying a new approach, including an AI-enabled crop-spraying drone that reduces chemical use by up to 90%.

Meet the Green Bay Packers historian:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 9.15.23: UW-Whitewater Projects Enrollment Increase

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 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:35 AM and sunset 7:04 PM for 12h 28m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1835, the HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galapagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.

  There’s good news for UW-Whitewater and our city as preliminary enrollment figures show gains year-over-year. Kimberly Wethal reports UW System enrollment projected to hold steady, with some universities rebounding:

University of Wisconsin System enrollment is projected to stay relatively flat this fall overall, as a handful of universities’ gains outweigh slight decreases elsewhere.

The System expects to have 540 more students this fall over last, a 0.3% increase over last year’s final enrollment of 160,782, according to data the System released Thursday. UW-Platteville, UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point all anticipated gains of about 3.4% — a few hundred more students on their campuses this fall.

Of all of System schools with growth, UW-Madison and UW-Green Bay had the smallest percentages, around 1.2%.

The estimates are based on first-day registration figures and are expected to differ from the official 10th-day count the System reports to the U.S. Department of Education.

Much of the System’s enrollment stability can be attributed to a 3% increase in freshman enrollment across universities, excluding UW-Madison.

See also the System press release Enrollment up, and steady, across the UW System (“Five universities show overall increases: UW-Madison, UW-Green Bay, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, and UW-Whitewater”).

An Epic Boat Battle…On Land?:

City, Film

Film: Wednesday, September 20th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Empire of Light

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Wednesday, September 20th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Empire of Light @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Drama/Romance

Rated R (sexual content, language)

1 hour, 55 minutes (2022)

Our last Wednesday art film of the summer is a British homage to the movie palaces of a bygone era. Coastal England, 1980. A middle-aged, unmarried cinema manager (Olivia Coleman) struggles to save a dying, chain movie theatre. Her loneliness and depression, compounded by a lecherous boss (Colin Firth), takes a turn when an energetic trainee (Micheal Ward) brightens her perspective on the business and life. Nominations included Best Cinematography (Oscar), Best Actress Film (BAFTA), and AARP Best Grownup Love Story.

One can find more information about The Empire of Light at the Internet Movie Database.

Cats

Friday Catblogging: FDNY Firefighters Rescue Kitten Trapped in Wheel Well

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Good news from the Big Apple, as Tom Shea reports FDNY firefighters rescue kitten trapped in underside of car:

Unfortunately, getting the frightened feline out wasn’t as simple as reaching in and picking it up. Firefighters broke out their tools and were able to get the wheel off — but the difficulties didn’t stop there.

They needed help from an unlikely source.

“There was some kind of bar pinning it down and keeping it from getting out so we used Dawn dish soap and lathered him all up and eventually I was able to pull the kitten out,” said Caliendo.

Video showed Caliendo pulling the kitten out from where it was stuck, as others stood by to help out.

And there was a happy ending for the feline as well: A member of Engine 311, which shares the firehouse, adopted the kitten.

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Courts, Crime, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.14.23: Allowing Prior Sexual Assaults as Evidence at Trial

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 72. Sunrise is 6:34 AM and sunset 7:06 PM for 12h 31m 46s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1994, the rest of the Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.

  Henry Redman reports Wisconsin Supreme Court hears arguments in case on allowing prior sexual assault as evidence:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in the first criminal case of its new term Wednesday, weighing if prior sexual assaults should be allowed to be used as evidence in sexual assault cases. 

The case, Wisconsin v. Seaton, involves a man accused of sexually assaulting his 17-year-old friend after she had been drinking. The man had also previously been accused of sexually assaulting a different 17-year-old girl after she had been drinking. 

The Waukesha County prosecutors in the case had filed a motion to have the prior assault admitted as “other acts evidence,” which allows previous actions by a criminal defendant to be admitted as evidence. The rules regarding other acts evidence are generally strict to avoid prejudicing juries against someone; with certain exceptions they generally limit the courts to consider only the evidence for the crime the defendant is charged with in that specific case. 

The Waukesha County judge trying the case denied the prosecution motion to admit the prior assault, which led prosecutors to file the appeal that the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. The state is asking the Court to change the rules regarding the admissibility of other acts evidence and to allow incidents that would serve to bolster a victim’s credibility when there isn’t any physical evidence of the assault. 

(Emphasis added.) The key issue before the court is that the requested admissibility addresses a victim’s credibility. 

As Redman accurately reports, “[c]riminal appeals before the Court often result in unique coalitions among the justices, as the issues can’t be interpreted in ways that neatly align with their typical ideological alignments.” That’s right: it’s impossible to predict how the court will rule on a case like this, and relying on the general ideological disposition of the justices will get one nowhere.

See State v. Morris V. Seaton, 2021AP1399-CR.

James Webb Space Telescope captures Saturn’s changing season:

Imagery of Saturn captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in Nov. 2022 is superimposed over an image captured by Hubble. “Yellows represent bright and warm parts of Saturn’s atmosphere, while the purple areas are cooler and darker,” according to NASA. 

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Sycophancy, Tantrums, That Which Paved the Way, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.13.23: Who Holds the Leash?

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:07 PM for 12h 34m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1948, Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

  Consider a dog that yelps, barks, snarls, and (too often) drools. People would have reason to see the dog as ill-natured and untrained. (The measure of nature and nurture might be hard to determine.) 

Sensible people, however, would wonder: Who holds that dog’s leash? The foul canine, after all, wears a collar, the collar is attached to a leash, and the leash is in a person’s hand. 

While the dog is the proximate cause of yelping, barking, snarling, and drooling, it’s the person who allows the dog to behave that way who is the root cause of the dog’s behavior. 

As it is with dogs and their owners, so it is with yelping, barking, snarling, drooling politicians and the special interests who hold their leashes. 

Whitewater has a problem with a politician or two like this, but the problem does not end at the tip of their snouts, so to speak. The problem extends all the way up to the hands of the local special-interest men who hold the leash. 

This Startup Buries Carbon Dioxide in the Ground:

City, Daily Bread, Education, School District

Daily Bread for 9.12.23: Lifetime Learning

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:32 AM and sunset 7:09 PM for 12h 37m 30s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a meeting of the Public Works Committee at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1958, Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.

 Those who enjoy, even love, a pursuit return to it when time allows. Learning is like this. The best motto the Whitewater Unified School District had was ‘every graduate an engaged lifelong learner.’ See The Whitewater Schools’ Motto, ‘Some College, No Degree’ Isn’t Whitewater’s Problem, and Whitewater School-Related Posts Since March [2023]. 

Michael Roth writes today in the New York Times of The Value of an Education That Never Ends (link is open):

Ultimately, the true student learns freedom by developing curiosity, judgment and creativity in the service of one’s own good and the good of their communities. This flourishing is different from being trained by an instructor to do a task or earn a badge, and it is different from the satisfaction one gets through acquiring objects or experiences in the marketplace.

On campus, students do learn specific tasks and they do enjoy experiences, of course, but as students they are doing something more fundamental and more open-ended. They are learning freedom by learning who they are and what they can do (including how they might think). This almost always happens in concert with others. Students flourish in discovering and developing their capacities together.

That’s why it’s such a challenge to be a perpetual student — as our society becomes atomized and polarized, the informal educational spaces for adults to learn from people who have different points of view are fewer and farther between. And it gets harder to exercise the intellectual humility that being a student requires when one is supposed to have the authority, the certainty, of adulthood. Yet some people manage it at various points in their lives by finding fellow learners. This can happen in book clubs, online classes, Bible study or simply in stimulating interactions with co-workers.

There is a hunger for this. Roughly 200 people join my online Great Books humanities class each week on Coursera. During the pandemic, the number was more than 1,000, and millions around the world find other classes via Khan Academy and edX. The desire for learning is also a desire for connecting. It is not just the desire for a prize or a diploma.

For perpetual students, learning (as opposed to training) has no end. As they reach the end of one path of inquiry, they find themselves already on another. These paths develop their capacities and can’t be delimited in advance of the opportunity for exploring them.

What a shame that Whitewater, with both a high school and a college, finds herself enmired in lesser institutional matters, preoccupying some but inspiring none. 

Kilauea Volcano Erupts in Hawaii for the Third Time in 2023:

Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.11.23: The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ‘Point of No Return’ Was Years Ago

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 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 67. Sunrise is 6:31 AM and sunset 7:11 PM for 12h 40m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 10.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be a Whitewater Common Council and Whitewater Unified School District joint meeting at 7 PM. 

On this day in 2001, the September 11 attacks kill 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

 In the Journal Sentinel, Jessie Opoien writes Can the Wisconsin Supreme Court overcome its fractured relations? Observers fear a point of no return:

“So many harsh, terrible things have been said. It’s going to be very hard, I think, for them to sit at a table and to be able to find common ground and to be able to compromise on whatever they need to compromise on,” former Justice Janine Geske said. “There are a lot of layers to this, somebody’s going to have to work through, and I think it’s going to be hard for them to be able to do it. … I don’t know that it can be done.”

Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, recently likened the dynamic of the court to a “food fight.” Marquette University Law School professor Chad Oldfather calls it “a mess.”

“My guess is that (the conflict) just furthers the sense that has been growing for a while … that they’re just political actors — that there’s no difference between what they do and what members of the Legislature do. And that’s a problem because they’re not supposed to do the same job,” Oldfather said.

Opoien knows that dysfunction is not new: 

The disagreements among justices continued over the next decade [the 2010s], including a physical altercation between Ann Walsh Bradley and Prosser, and an exchange during which Prosser called Abrahamson a “bitch” and said she would be “destroyed.”

(Emphasis added.) 

See Prosser admits touching Bradley’s neck; she says she suffered no harm.

This court isn’t ill because it has a new justice; it suffers from pre-existing conditions.

See Hurricane Lee in this amazing time-lapsed view from space: