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Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Politics, Trump, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 4.11.22: The WISGOP’s Idea of a Pilgrim

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 57.  Sunrise is 6:18 AM and sunset 7:33 PM for 13h 15m 09s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6:00 PM, and the Whtewater Unified District School Board meets in closed session at 6 PM and open session at 7:30 PM.

On this day in 1945, American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.

 Molly Beck reports Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort becomes ground zero in the Republican race for Wisconsin governor:

MADISON – A third Republican eyeing the governor’s office traveled to Donald Trump’s Florida resort this week as Wisconsin’s Democratic incumbent used his opponents’ trips to see the former president to build a campaign war chest.

A pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago has become a requisite for Wisconsin Republicans in 2022 and Rep. Tim Ramthun, a Republican from Campbellsport, arrived there Thursday as he crafts a campaign largely on the idea that President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory is illegitimate.

….

Ramthun’s visit, to attend a fundraiser for Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake, was the latest in a string of trips Republicans have made in the last month to see Trump as their primary field for governor takes shape.

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is running against Ramthun in the GOP primary for governor, traveled to Mar-a-Lago in early March. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who is mulling whether to get in the race, met with Trump at the club last week.

A spokeswoman for Kevin Nicholson, who also is running for governor, did not respond to whether Nicholson was also planning to take a trip.

Nicholson will go, even if it means sneaking in a back gate and jumping into a buffet line. They’ll all end up going, where going is, to any reasonable person, disqualifying.

100,000 ladybugs released to reduce pesticides at Vegas resort:

Daily Bread, Insurrection

Daily Bread for 4.10.22: Nicolle Wallace on the Jan. 6th Committee

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Good morning.

Palm Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 57.  Sunrise is 6:19 AM and sunset 7:32 PM for 13h 12m 20s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 62.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 837, Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (3.2 million miles).

Nicolle Wallace talks with John Heilemann on Where Things with the Jan. 6th Committee: 

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John Heilemann talks with his pal Nicolle Wallace, host of Deadline: White House on MSNBC, about the January 6th committee and Liz Cheney’s battle against authoritarianism in the Republican Party, assesses whether the threats to American democracy posed by the far right are worse than those of Al-Qaeda, weighs in on the missing seven and a half hour gap in the White House phone logs on 1/6 and the incompetence of the Trump administration, and explains why the Department of Justice may be more willing to investigate Hunter Biden than Donald Trump.

Tune in to the full episode to hear about the latest bombshell reporting on efforts to subvert the 2020 election — namely, a series of text messages revealing that conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, pressured then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn Biden’s victory.

Watch part 1 of this episode of Hell & High Water – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Beu…

Watch part 2 of this episode of Hell & High Water – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESjZQ…

Meet The Ukrainian Family Keeping a Century-Old Weaving Tradition Alive:

Bad Ideas, Daily Bread, Foreign Affairs, Putin, War

Daily Bread for 4.9.22: Germany’s Failed Approach to Russia

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 46.  Sunrise is 6:21 AM and sunset 7:30 PM for 13h 09m 31s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1959, NASA announces the selection of the United States’ first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the “Mercury Seven.”

The New York Times podcast, The Daily, interviews Katrin Bennhold, the Berlin bureau chief of the Times, on How Germany’s Approach to Russia Backfired:

German theories of interdependency with Russia as the basis of peace in Europe have proved false.

Interdependence with a dictatorship has brought both war to Europe and subservience to Germany.

SpaceX launches 1st all-private Axiom crew to space station, sticks landing:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 4.8.22: UW System Postpones Free-Speech Survey

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see scattered rain and snow showers with a high of 36.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 7:29 PM for 13h 06m 40s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity.

Devi Shastri reports With interim chancellor quitting in protest and questions about funding, UW System free speech survey postponed:

A University of Wisconsin System survey of students on the highly-politicized topic of free speech on campus has been delayed following weeks of fallout and the resignation of a chancellor.

Tim Shiell, director of UW-Stout’s Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation, sent an email Wednesday to UW System’s interim president, Michael Falbo, to say the survey would be delayed until fall 2022. UW System officials released the email to reporters Thursday.

The postponement would give the research team time to “answer fully and accurately the avalanche of questions arising and lay the groundwork for a successful survey,” Shiell wrote.

In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Shiell elaborated on the decision to delay the survey, saying there were several UW campuses that needed more time to prepare while conducting other planned surveys.

He also said the resignation of Jim Henderson, interim chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, inquiries about where the funding for the survey came from, and the overall debate surrounding it pushed the group to delay. There are many “fair questions” that need to be addressed, he said.

“We want to make sure we have a quality research project and given all the hoopla that’s arisen around this at this point, the research team just felt we couldn’t do the survey now and feel like the results were going to be reliable and credible,” he said.

The research team, with Shiell in the lead, will conduct the survey through the UW System’s Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service.

Perhaps, as Shastri’s headline implies, Henderson’s resignation is primarily a reaction to a speech survey. Under that reading, Henderson resigned because he (and others) had concerns about what they saw as a politicized survey process. Henderson’s brief resignation email to Interim System President Falbo can be read that way.

Henderson’s resignation announcement to the UW-Whitewater campus, and his remarks to Wisconsin Public Radio, are not, however, so narrowly confined. They suggest, and so one can reasonably infer, broader concerns about politicization.

There’s a speech survey, but beyond that single issue, there are likely other relevant and material concerns, the possibility of which deserves greater scrutiny.

Previously: UW-Whitewater’s Chronic Administrative Turmoil and The Explanation(s) for the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Resignation.

The Horrors Russia Left Behind:

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, April 12th, 1 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Smallest Show on Earth

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Tuesday, April 12th at 1 PM, there will be a showing of The Smallest Show on Earth @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Comedy

Rated G

1 hour, 20 minutes, black and white (1957)

A young couple (Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna) inherit a debt-ridden old movie theater, appropriately nicknamed “The Flea Pit,” and the three eccentric senior citizens who work there (Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles). An amusing, beautiful little comedy!

Mark dedicates this film is dedicated to Deb, for allowing him to show movies to some of the smallest (and largest) crowds, ever!

One can find more information about The Smallest Show on Earth at the Internet Movie Database.

Enjoy.

Architecture, Cats

Friday Catblogging: Taiwanese House Has a Dedicated Cat Room

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India Block writes Pink holiday home by KC Design Studio features dedicated cat room:

Cats’ Pink House is a holiday home in Taiwan that includes cat ladders, a rotating carousel-shaped climbing frame and a fluffy pink swing for the owner’s feline companions.

KC Design Studio made everything pink, even the basketball hoop and court for the human occupants.

While it’s true that cats see in what, for us, are pastel colors, this design presents an abundance (in my view an extreme over-abundance) of pink. And yet, it’s a cats’ room, not a humans’ room, so if they like the colors, that’s what should matter most.

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 4.7.22: The Explanation(s) for the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Resignation

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will see scattered rain and snow showers with a high of 40.  Sunrise is 6:24 AM and sunset 7:28 PM for 13h 03m 50s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 33.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM, the Common Council meets at 6:30 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department also meets at 6:30 PM. 

On this day in 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.

One saw on April 4th, in an announcement to the UW-Whitewater community, that Interim Chancellor Jim Henderson had resigned:

Dear Colleagues:

One of my three goals for my time as interim chancellor has been to help this campus hire the best chancellor possible who will be here for the long term.  Over the past few days it has become clear to me that I cannot make progress on that goal.  Given that, I feel that it is in both the best interest of UW-Whitewater and me personally that I resign my position as interim chancellor, and I have submitted my resignation effective at the end of the day today.

I have greatly enjoyed my time with you. I so admire all of you and what you are accomplishing for the students at both the Whitewater and Rock County campuses.  I wish you the best going forward and thank you all for the incredible support that you’ve given me over the past 9 months.

With deep appreciation,
Jim Henderson

See from FREE WHITEWATER on April 5th, UW-Whitewater’s Chronic Administrative Turmoil.

Official statements, and Henderson’s remarks about his resignation reported afterward, suggest that Henderson had more than one reason for his abrupt departure. That’s common; people sometimes leave a position for more than one reason.

What strikes me as curious is that there’s been a shift in reporting away from Henderson’s own stated, general reason for his departure to a singular one. A singular motivation strikes me as unlikely.

A review of recent reporting appears below —

 Henderson’s statement to the campus. Under a fair reading of Henderson’s explanation, he expressly links his departure to difficulties in helping to find “the best chancellor possible who will be here for the long term.  Over the past few days it has become clear to me that I cannot make progress on that goal.”

Initial Reporting. Kelly Meyerhofer’s initial reporting at the State Journal from 4.5.22 on Henderson’s departure notes both the abruptness of the resignation and his concern about finding a replacement:

Jim Henderson, who took over as leader of the 11,500-student university last July, said in a statement that one of his goals as interim chancellor was to help hire the best chancellor for the long-term success of UW-Whitewater.

“Over the past few days it has become clear to me that I cannot make progress on that goal,” he said.

See Interim UW-Whitewater chancellor resigns in ‘unexpected’ move. 

 Meyerhofer’s 4.6.22 Subsequent Reporting. One day later, Meyerhofer followed her first story with a second: UW-Whitewater chancellor’s resignation linked to free speech survey:

UW-Whitewater’s interim chancellor resigned earlier this week because the University of Wisconsin System moved forward with a survey that will ask students about free speech rights despite his and other chancellors’ objections

Jim Henderson, who assumed the helm of the Whitewater campus last summer, tendered his resignation Monday saying in a statement he couldn’t effectively recruit a permanent chancellor for a search that hadn’t yet begun.

However, in an interview Tuesday with the Wisconsin State Journal, he elaborated on his departure and emphasized that a major reason for his decision was UW System leadership’s handling of the free speech survey.

….

The free speech survey will be sent to undergraduates on all campuses Thursday and must be completed by May 6. Questions will assess students’ knowledge about the First Amendment, how much they value free speech, whether they see problems with a lack of diverse viewpoints, whether they censor themselves, and whether they have ever been sanctioned or punished for exercising their free speech rights.

The Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, a unit of the System, is administering the survey. The work is funded by UW-Stout’s Menard Center for Public Policy and Service, which began in 2017 with a donation from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation.

Meyerhofer reports on how Interim System President Mike Falbo explained his (Falbo’s) reversal to allow the survey:

Michael Falbo, who took over as interim System president last month, said he met with chancellors a few weeks ago to discuss the survey. Chancellors raised concerns, leading Falbo to decide the System would not participate in the survey.

However, Falbo said in a statement to the State Journal that his stance changed last week after Menard Center director Tim Shiell emailed him saying the chancellors’ concerns are based on incomplete and perhaps mistaken information.

But Henderson describes Falbo’s rationale for reversal differently:

Henderson said he worried about students experiencing survey fatigue this spring because of two others already in the works, one of which is required for an upcoming accreditation visit and another that will ask about mental health initiatives. He also said chancellors were told the survey had to be conducted this spring because external funding was contingent on that timeline, which was something chancellors questioned.

“First Amendment rights are vital to the UW-Whitewater community, and they have demonstrated that they are able to assure that a variety of voices are heard on campus in a respectful way, so we didn’t view this as crucial to serving our students,” he said. “We should be able to determine the prioritization of surveys administered on our campuses.”

Henderson also said Falbo, in explaining the reversal of his decision to chancellors, focused on the political fallout of not doing the survey — not on Shiell’s arguments [UW-Stout Prof. Timothy Shiell, survey architect] for moving forward with the project, as Falbo told the State Journal.

It’s possible, but improbable, that Henderson is misquoting what Falbo said. Under Henderson’s account, Falbo introduced political considerations into his explanation for reversal. Falbo either mentioned politics or he didn’t. It’s more likely that Falbo either carelessly or candidly admitted a political calculus for sending the survey than that Henderson fabricated Falbo’s words and abruptly resigned afterward.

There is no account anywhere that suggests Henderson is either dishonest or intemperate. On the contrary, it’s notable that, in the many conversations over Henderson’s tenure in which someone has mentioned him to me, every person to whom I have spoken or written has thought well of him.

(Obvious point: this libertarian would not be opposed to an academic free-speech survey, so long as it was sent at the right opportunity and had no political agenda.)

 Reporting at WPR. After her first story, other reporters spoke with or recounted Henderson’s resignation. At Wisconsin Public Radio, Rich Kremer reports that Former UW-Whitewater chancellor says resignation due to lack of support from UW System administration (‘Jim Henderson says he wouldn’t encourage anyone to apply for chancellorship in UW System at this point’). 

In an interview Tuesday with Wisconsin Public Radio, Henderson said he was breaking his silence to make sure people know his departure has nothing to do with UW-Whitewater.

“UW-Whitewater is a first-rate comprehensive (university) that serves students exceedingly well,” Henderson said. “The faculty, they’re dedicated to the students, and I want to make sure that everyone understands that. I think it’s a wonderful university.”

Henderson said he resigned because he felt there was a lack of support from UW System leadership. Because of that, Henderson said, he could not encourage other higher education leaders he knows to apply for the UW-Whitewater chancellorship.

“I wouldn’t encourage anyone to apply for a chancellorship in the UW System at this point,” Henderson said. “Because I felt like we had established a level of collaboration and trust between the chancellors and the leadership that was not honored.”

Henderson wouldn’t say what specific issue or disagreement with UW System administrators broke that trust.

 Reporting at the Wisconsin Examiner. Henry Redman adds detail in Proposed UW student survey on campus free speech leads to resignation of UW-Whitewater chancellor: 

Faculty and administrators have said they’re worried the survey may be used by Republicans in the state Legislature for political attacks against the state’s higher education system and that they object to how UW System leadership has managed the survey’s rollout.

According to reports from the Wisconsin State Journal and the Chronicle for Higher Education, interim UW System President Michael Falbo had initially declined to hold the survey following pushback from chancellors but backtracked later. Rep. David Murphy (R-Greenville) was involved in the process of pushing the survey forward, according to the Chronicle report.

The reporting from Meyerhofer and Redman (with Redman citing Megan Zahneis at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s A Free-Speech Survey in Wisconsin Sparked Concerns. So a Chancellor Quit. ‘A Dark Day for Whitewater’) focuses on concerns about the survey.

In this WPR interview, however, Henderson does not attribute his departure merely to the free-speech survey. On the contrary, his interview explanation is consistent with a broad concern about governance of local campuses. Meyerhofer is right to report that Henderson’s departure may be linked to a free speech survey. The survey is manifestly part of Henerson’s concerns, but someone who resigns so suddenly probably had more on his mind than one disagreement on policy with Interim System President Mike Falbo.

There’s sure to be more to come.

California man discovers 7-foot-long snake behind sofa:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 4.6.22: 4 Points On Whitewater’s Spring ’22 Election

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Good afternoon.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and a high of 54.  Sunrise is 6:26 AM and sunset 7:27 PM for 13h 01m 00s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1831, the Sauk Indians leave Illinois & Wisconsin:

On this date, in the spring of 1831, the Sauk Indians led by Chief Keokuk left their ancestral home near the mouth of the Rock River and moved across the Mississippi River to Iowa to fulfill the terms of a treaty signed in 1804. Many of the tribe, however, believed the treaty to be invalid and the following spring, when the U.S. government failed to provide them with promised supplies, this dissatisfied faction led by Black Hawk returned to their homeland on the Rock River, precipitating the Black Hawk War.

Whitewater has passed, survived perhaps, another election season. The city and the school district came through this better than they might have, at least better than some communities have. Four observations immediately below:

Before and Above Politics. As much as politics matters, a reminder: Whitewater’s needs exceed the political. The community faces challenges that the conventionally political (and certainly local politics) cannot overcome. This understanding of Whitewater underlies any serious commentary on the city. If one thinks that politics matters most to Whitewater’s well-being, then one grasps the community poorly. We’ve slipped past a local political cure.

A difficult situation requires a different remedy. These views are not new with me. See An Oasis Strategy (2016) and Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day (2020).

One grapples with politics to avoid a worse condition.

We have for now avoided what might have been that worse condition. See What if They Got Everything They Wanted?

No Wave. While 2021 was a local wave election in Whitewater, 2022 was not. There were no big surprises. The conservative populists lost in contested races for city and county seats (with incumbent Allen and newcomer Stanek winning easily), and the school board contests were predictably close for three of the four candidates (Aranda, Kienbaum, Kromholz). 

The ideological balance within the city and school district is, in the main, unchanged. 

Misunderstanding Whitewater. Local conservative populists misread a single election year (2021) into a supposed multi-year trend. They likely spent too much time talking to each other and not enough time thinking about community sentiment. Whitewater simply doesn’t have the same energy and enthusiasm for politics as the populists do. See Energy and Exhaustion.

It doesn’t matter that Whitewater was once more politically enthusiastic, so to speak; it matters what Whitewater is like now.

A populist vibe for city and county seats, even when concealed under a blanket of platitudes (‘common sense,’ ‘back to basics,’ etc.), was always going to be unwelcome within the city. See Whitewater’s Still Part of America.

Yard Signs. Yard signs are a part of political expression, but expression isn’t effectiveness, as the signs themselves don’t cast ballots.  Truly, that many signs in Whitewater weren’t about persuasion, but were rather a kind of crude performance art. Fair enough, but what did these landlords want — to make a statement or for their candidates to win a city election? 

A whole lotta trees gave their lives for nothin’.

Bat Flies Into Plane Preparing for Take Off:

City, Daily Bread, University, UW System

Daily Bread for 4.5.22: UW-Whitewater’s Chronic Administrative Turmoil

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 50.  Sunrise is 6:28 AM and sunset 7:26 PM for 12h 58m 08s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 17% of its visible disk illuminated.

 The Whitewater Unified School District’s Policy Review Committee meets at 9 AM, and Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1792, President Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.

Since 2007, when FREE WHITEWATER first began publishing, there have been seven chancellors at UW-Whitewater: Saunders, Telfer, Kopper, Green (interim), Watson, Henderson (interim), and Chenoweth (interim). Of those chancellors, two presided over a campus beset with multiple sexual harassment clams (Telfer and Kopper).

One now reads that Interim Chancellor Henderson has resigned and Vice Chancellor & Provost Chenoweth is now Interim Chancellor Chenoweth.  (The UW System announcement of the replacement of one interim chancellor with another came from — truly — Interim System President Michael Falbo.)

UW-Whitewater is a school of good students and faculty with poor administrative stability and competency.

Kelly Meyerhofer’s reporting on the latest instability, Interim UW-Whitewater chancellor resigns in ‘unexpected’ move, offers a reason for Henderson’s resignation and describes past turmoil:

Jim Henderson, who took over as leader of the 11,500-student university last July, said in a statement that one of his goals as interim chancellor was to help hire the best chancellor for the long-term success of UW-Whitewater.

“Over the past few days it has become clear to me that I cannot make progress on that goal,” he said.

But a search hasn’t yet begun and just this fall, University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson said at a UW Board of Regents meeting that Henderson had agreed to extend his service for a second year.

….

Henderson’s resignation is the latest in a string of leadership shake-ups at UW-Whitewater.

The previous chancellor, Dwight Watson, resigned last year because of a cancer diagnosis. The year prior, the System investigated him after a former student at a previous job accused him of sexual misconduct. Investigators found the accusations to be without merit.

Watson’s predecessor, Beverly Kopper, resigned after a System investigation found her husband had sexually harassed students and university employees, leading one of them to sue the university last fall for allegedly failing to protect women. Kopper’s husband denied the allegations.

The implication is clear enough: the UW System hasn’t made a new chancellor for UW-Whitewater a priority. If there’s ever been a campus in the UW System that’s needed stable and competent leadership, it’s UW-Whitewater. While one naturally pays more attention to events close at hand, it’s impossible to find a four-year System school that’s more troubled administratively than UW-Whitewater.

If the System has failed Whitewater, then so have some of Whitewater’s residents. It was, after all, local input (when local input mattered more) that led Whitewater notables (such as they were) to support Kopper’s appointment on the theory that she would continue Telfer’s supposed legacy. See The Last Inside Accounts and Revisiting Kozloff’s ‘Dark, Futile Dream.’

There’s mistaken, and then there’s ironically mistaken.

 Tonight’s Sky for April:

Business, Conservative Populism, CRT, Culture, Daily Bread, Horde, Kulturkampf, Libertarians, Never Trump, Politics, Sexual Orientation

Daily Bread for 4.4.22: The Populists Circle Disney (Yes, Disney)

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 49.  Sunrise is 6:29 AM and sunset 7:25 PM for 12h 55m 16s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Equal Opportunities Commission meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1865, a day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, President Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

Populism requires new enemies and outrages to sustain itself. For all their talk of being sensible, the conservative populists are the opposite: easily slighted, hot-headed, and susceptible of ill-formed ideas. See Defining Populism, Conservative Populism Moves in One Direction Only, and Who Rampaged Better? 

So from race, to transgender identity, to Disney as a supposed stream of perversion, the populists need someone and something to demonize.

At the Bulwark, Charlie Sykes and Tim Miller discuss the latest enemies of the populists’ kulturkampf.  (This culture struggle, needless to say, has neither the objects nor the design of Bismarck’s original.)

A word on Sykes. As the conservative world has become a Trumpist one, Sykes (like a few other conservatives) left that world for a Never Trump one. By moving in this direction, Sykes has now become what libertarians (as I am) thought we’d years ago find in a loose association with conservatives.

We did not find a positive association with the conservatives of yesteryear, despite trying too often and too persistently (the effort was called ‘fusion’ among libertarians, and it was a compromising mistake that libertarians should never have made).

As it turns out, it’s only now, after the ruin of mainstream conservativism, that some of its Never Trump refugees are now closer to what libertarians had sought (but did not years ago find) in conservatives.

Not everything, mind you, but today more than yesterday, surely.

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How the JFK airport spots counterfeit products:

America, Culture, Daily Bread, Fellow Traveler, Foreign Affairs, Fox News, Politics, Putin

Daily Bread for 4.3.22: BBC Reports Evidence Points to War Crimes on Road Outside Kyiv

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 6:31 AM and sunset 7:24 PM for 12h 52m 23s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, Union forces capture the Confederate capital of Richmond.

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The Russian army has pulled out in a hurry from areas it occupied to the west of Kyiv. The BBC has gained access to places abandoned by Russian forces, shortly after their retreat, and has found evidence of atrocities, that could amount to war crimes.

One shocking incident took place on the E-40 highway, just west of the capital, with the shooting dead of civilians attempting to flee.

The BBC has also gained access to the nearby town of Irpin, which was heavily fought over but has now been abandoned by Russian forces.

Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Jeremy Bowen, west of Kyiv, and Orla Guerin in Irpin.

WARNING: The video does contain some distressing images.

After Chechnya, after Syria, and after Crimea and the Donbas, what did Americans think Putin was?

Some — the worst among us — thought he was justified.  See These Are the American Right-Wingers Covering for Putin as Russia Invades Ukraine (‘From Tucker Carlson to Tulsi Gabbard, these prominent Moscow apologists tried to tell you Ukraine’s fate shouldn’t matter to America’).

There are small-town residents across America who’ve shared their sentiments, presented as ‘plain speaking,’ ‘blunt talk,’ etc.  Plainly spoken in reply: they are as repulsive as they are ignorant.

Those wishing to lecture persuasively on American values should show an understanding of those values.

See also Whitewater’s Still Part of America.

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Disinformation, Mendacity, Propaganda

Daily Bread for 4.2.22: Spotting Disinformation and Misinformation

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see a bit of snow and rain with a high of 39.  Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 7:22 PM for 12h 49m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1917, President Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

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During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in a region where journalists are targeted and fleeing the country, we have come to rely on social media to understand what’s happening on the ground in real time. Meanwhile, old videos have been posted on TikTok to look like they’re from the current conflict. Photos have been staged to mimic attacks on civilians. And the Russian government is spreading lies about who’s to blame for the war. So The Recount asked Shaydanay Urbani, who teaches journalists and NGOs how to identify misleading information, how to be smarter news consumers amidst an onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.