Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox November 09, 2024 @ 7:00 PMThe Young 930 W Main St, Whitewater, WI 53190 Tickets: http://uwwhitewater.vbotickets.com/event/scott_bradlee`s_postmodern_jukebox/130993.
Here’s the first annual FREE WHITEWATER list of reassuring things in Whitewater. (It’s a companion to the eighteenth annual Boo! List of Scariest Things in Whitewater, 2024.) The list runs in alphabetical order. ALDI. This administration brought ALDI. Whitewater wanted a supermarket and the new administration brought one. Well done. The old guard mucked around for…
Here’s the eighteenth annual FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest things in Whitewater. (The 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 editions are available for comparison.) The list runs in reverse order, from mildly scary to truly frightening. 10. Crazed Foxes. For many years, I’ve warned the…
Tuesday, October 29th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Godzilla Minus One @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Epic/Monster/Horror Rated PG-13 2 hours, 4 minutes (2023) In Japan, Godzilla is a revered pop culture icon and national hero. On November 3, 2024, after 40 films and over 70 years,…
Tuesday, October 22nd at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Vast of Night @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Drama/Science Fiction/Thriller Rated PG-13 1 hour, 31 minutes (2019) Reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits”! One night in New Mexico in the late 1950s, a young switchboard…
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 64. Sunrise is 7:11, and sunset is 6:08, for 10 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is full, with 100 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1781, British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Battle (Siege) of Yorktown:
The British Prime Minister, Lord North, is reported to have exclaimed “Oh God, it’s all over” when told of the defeat.[87] Three months after the battle, a motion to end “further prosecution of offensive warfare on the continent of North America” – effectively a no confidence motion – passed in the British House of Commons. Lord North and his government resigned.
Mass deportation would be a moral failure, as wholesale detention and dispossession would be an ethic cleansing abhorrent to the reasonable & civilized. It would, secondarily, be an economic catastrophe for America.
The governmental infrastructure required to arrest, process, and remove 13 million undocumented immigrants would cost nearly $1 trillion over 10 years and would deal a “devastating” hit to economic growth, according to a report published last week by the American Immigration Council (AIC). The think tank estimates that a mass deportation plan would shrink America’s gross domestic product by at least 4.2 percent, due to the loss of workers in industries already struggling to find enough labor.
Trump has promised to create a “deportation force” to round up undocumented immigrants and eject them from the country. This would entail targeting two groups: the roughly 11 million people who lacked permanent legal status as of 2022 (that’s the most recent number from the American Community Survey) and the estimated 2.3 million people who have entered the country without legal status since January 2023 (that figure come from the Department of Homeland Security).
The notion that the native born would fill jobs and gaps is false, as Boehm writes:
The costs of mass deportation would rebound into the economy in several ways. The economy would shrink and federal tax revenues would decline. The construction industry, where an estimated 14 percent of workers are undocumented migrants, would be particularly hard hit, but the effects would be felt throughout the economy.
“Removing that labor would disrupt all forms of construction across the nation, from homes to businesses to basic infrastructure,” the AIC notes. “As industries suffer, hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born workers could lose their jobs.”
That’s an important point. Immigration restrictionists often assume that deporting millions of undocumented workers would allow more Americans to fill those jobs, but the economy is not a zero-sum game. A shrinking economy would be bad news for many workers who aren’t directly impacted by Trump’s deportation plan.
The AIC’s estimates are generally in line with the estimates made earlier this year by analysts at the Penn Wharton Budget Center (PWBM), a fiscal policy think tank housed at the University of Pennsylvania. “The costs of the former president’s plan to deport the more than 14 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. today could easily reach more than $1 trillion over 10 years, before taking into account the labor costs necessary for such a project or the unforeseen consequences of reducing the labor supply by such drastic amounts over a short period,” reportedMarketwatch, which requested the PWBM estimate.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:07, and sunset is 6:13, for 11 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 87.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Planning & Architectural Review Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1947, Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to exceed the speed of sound.
Whitewater is a beautiful city, there is no better place to live, and I hope that more people of all kinds would join us here.
Some weeks ago, Steve Cortes, a rightwing nativist from far away, mentioned online that he had visited Whitewater.
I thought at the time: what would this tumbledown1 nativist have to contribute to Whitewater?
This is the Curious Case of the Invasion that Didn’t Bark in the Night.
In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story from his Sherlock Holmes series, Silver Blaze2, Holmes discerns a critical clue in the disappearance of racehorse Silver Blaze:
[Inspector Gregory] “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” [Sherlock Holmes] “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” [Gregory] “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” [Holmes] “That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.
The dog’s silence tells Holmes something significant about the scene.
Cortes, in seventeen minutes3, describes Whitewater’s situation as “turned upside down by globalism,” and that Whitewater might as well be “on banks of the freaking Rio Grande River,” etc.
If all this were true, as an invasion, more than one woman in her out-of-city house, two men at a picnic table, and one man in a bar would have been visible in protest for these many years. That hasn’t happened here.
One would have to believe that Whitewater’s fifteen-thousand residents, excited and demonstrative over Warhawks and Packers, over the Fourth of July and dozens of community gatherings, didn’t care enough about their own physical safety for several years.
The concern about whether the police force is overworked (fair enough, that can be fixed with hiring) is separate from the lie that Whitewater is dangerous place from immigrants (it’s not). The serious misunderstanding was thinking that entreaties as crafted at the time to increase staffing would not be exploited by out-of-the-city nativists exaggerating and lying about dangers from newcomers4.
As one began, so one concludes: Whitewater is a beautiful city, there is no better place to live, and I hope that more people of all kinds would join us here.
Cortes’s career arc points downward: CNBC, Fox, Newsmax, Trumpist, then a DeSantis man, then Trump again when DeSantis went bust, and now a would-be leader of a laughable ‘labor group’ that has only a few as members. ↩︎
Silver Blaze is one the of best of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. ↩︎
On the Johnson-Steil press conference seeThe Local Press Conference that Was Neither Local Nor a Press Conference. On advice from FREE WHITEWATER to consider staffing after the 2024 election to avoid politicization (posted 12.4.23) seeMore on the 11.21 Council Session (“There’s sure to be a desire, from city staff and the department, to address all of this now. Choosing among justifications, however, has political implications. How to present a referendum is a matter that can be addressed when the city is closer to a vote (likely spring 2025). 2025 may seem close, but there’s plenty of time.”) There should have been no doubt whatever that the residents of this city would and will support a referendum for additional officers. I have been a sometime critic of past policing in this city, and yet I would support (and can see that my fellow residents would support) a staffing referendum to boost headcount. SeealsoIn Support of Whitewater’s Fire & EMS Referendum and Fire & Rescue, Whitewater’s Most Important Public Policy Accomplishment of the Last Generation. ↩︎
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 7:03, and sunset is 6:19, for 11 hours, 17 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 48 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Board of Zoning Appeals meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1985, US Navy aircraft intercept an Egyptian airliner carrying the perpetrators of the Achille Lauro hijacking, and force it to land in Italy.
Inflation in the United States dropped last month to its lowest point since it first began surging more than three years ago, adding to a spate of encouraging economic news in the closing weeks of the presidential race.
Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in September from a year earlier, down from 2.5% in August, and the smallest annual rise since February 2021. Measured from month to month, prices increased 0.2% from August to September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, the same as in the previous month.
These favorable national measures are beneficial throughout the county.
Go ahead, Whitewater, make the most of these better times. Take someone’s recommendation and turn the page.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 6:58, and sunset is 6:26, for 11 hours, 28 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 12.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Run for Trey 5K Fun Run takes place today (registration open at 8 AM, race at 10 AM, at Treyton’s Field of Dreams, 504 W Starin Road in Whitewater.
On this day in 2010, Instagram, a mainstream photo-sharing application, launches.
Consider three vignettes on humor: a prank, a response to it, and a contemporary rendition of puns. These vignettes are respectively clever, dull, and clever.
The Prank: Students have for generations strewn toilet paper into trees. The prank is part of Americana. It’s time-honored and harmless. One such TP mission took place recently on the grounds of Whitewater High School.
Clever, and in keeping with American culture.
The Response: Whitewater’s high-school principal and athletic director rode around on a golf cart, with a mechanical claw, picking up pieces of toilet paper, and later posing for photographs.
There’s a backstory to the recent Whitewater incident. This same principal, Brent Mansky, only a year ago was accused in his hometown of Williams Bay of pursuing and tacking a teenager for trying to place toilet paper on Mansky’s house1.
Whitewater Principal Mansky, after the recent Whitewater High toilet papering, gave a statement to the Banner, a publication of the Whitewater Community Foundation:
Principal Brent Mansky and Athletic Director Justin Crandall displayed no irritation while cruising the campus in a golf cart to retrieve paper from the lawn on Friday afternoon. “They have to learn to do it better,” Mansky told The Banner. Noting how the perpetrators seemed to hit each tree only once, he continued, “Next year we’re going to make it into a competition between the classes; each grade will be assigned a section. They’ll have to clean up what’s on the lawn by Friday evening.”
Consider that statement, in light of Mansky’s past overwrought and under-thought conduct in Williams Bay. His present remarks are humorless and, truly, backwards. Humor, if any at all, after his past conduct should have been contrite and self-effacing (well, I had that coming, etc.) Instead, Manksy’s reply brittlely repeats part of his past mistake: a false projection of strength (“they have to learn to do it better”) like the false strength of turning off his yard camera while waiting for minor children to come into his yard.
His humor’s backwards because his perspective is backwards.
The Banner‘s subject line, “WHS Principal Takes Homecoming TP in Stride: “They have to learn how to do it better” is obtuse. That’s not taking this harmless prank in stride. If Mansky took it in stride, he wouldn’t be projecting demands for more onto his pranksters. He would be self-deprecating. More likely: this is an embarrassed man who found a soft-touch staff member at the Banner to salve his embarrassment.
Here’s a saying that describes this local effort: can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It’s a dull and humorless effort.
A Contemporary Rendition of Puns. I’ll offer a palate cleanser by way of a truly humorous rendition of old-school puns2. I’m not much for puns, yet listen to a talented Instagrammer, contemporary in style and delivery, make something old vibrant again:
Now that’s clever3: someone of a new generation (about the age of my daughter-in-law, I’d guess), through fashion and manner, transforms the old into the new (and, I’d say, even better than before).
Delightful.
Rachael Perry of WKOW reported after the incident that Bodycam video released after Whitewater principal accused of tackling teen: “”When they came up through my property they started chucking the f toilet paper in my yard,” Mansky said. “I got one kid,” he told the officer. The officer asked what Mansky meant by that, and he replied “I got his hoodie from him.” Mansky later admits to the officer that he watched as the teens were TP-ing area houses and waited for them to approach his. He said he ran after them and tackled one to the ground. That’s when he explained he got the sweatshirt from the teen. The officer asked Mansky if his cameras caught the teens on video. He replied, “I turned them off so they wouldn’t get activated when those little d*** heads came rolling through”….One teen told officers Mansky tackled him to the ground. “He gets me into the headlock, and then I slip again,” the teen said. He claims Mansky stood over him before grabbing him by the neck. “He picked me up from my neck and started strangling me,” he said.” ↩︎
Serendipity and Synchronicity are with me: Although it’s not my normal fare of cat & nature accounts, the Instragram algorithm recommended this account to me only a few days ago. ↩︎
The account’s tagline is invitingly self-aware: “If you don’t roll your eyes, what are we even doing here?” ↩︎
Tuesday, October 8th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Matinee @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Comedy/Drama Rated PG 1 hour, 39 minutes (1993) Remember “The Fly,” “The Mole People,” and “The Alligator Man”? In a deft spoof of 50’s-60’s horror films, John Goodman portrays a B-movie producer of…
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 6:52, and sunset is 6:35, for 11 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 1.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Thousands of people visited the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater during the summer of 2024 as the Whitewater and Rock County campuses hosted scores of events between the spring and fall semesters.
“It was an incredible summer at UW-Whitewater, and I’m so proud that nearly 20,000 people visited our campuses,” said Chancellor Corey A. King. “We have a vibrant community, and it was on full display across the wonderful plethora of events we hosted. I’d like to thank our students, event volunteers, faculty, and staff, including our camps and conferences office, for fostering a welcoming, inclusive environment for learning and engagement.”
Keep going: Whitewater is made happier and more prosperous when she has visitors.
As in years past, the Night sky October is meteor season – there are seven meteor showers that reach peak activity during the month! There are also chances to see asteroids, dwarf planets, and other planets in our solar system too. Also there will be a Annular solar eclipse on October 2. Be sure to mark your calendar for October 21st, the peak of the Orionids meteor shower and highlight of the month.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:44, and sunset is 6:49, for 12 hours, 5 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 63.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 6 PM, and the full board in regular session at 7 PM.
Whitewater once again has a stand-alone supermarket, and like so many residents, this libertarian blogger is pleased to see ALDI in town. Note well: the public policy of recruiting a supermarket is not the matter of a single business, but of how local public officials have managed through public bodies (like the Whitewater Community Development Authority) under public laws and principles. However hard it has been, and remains, for Whitewater’s declining old guard to grasp, each of them (or any of us) is no less — but no more — than 1 of 15,000 in the city.1
Unquestionably right. The old Sentry closed in ’15, and Whitewater went years fumbling with old-guard CDA attempts to bring a dedicated supermarket. They accomplished nothing of the kind.
ALDI is in Whitewater because the city has a new municipal administration that brought ALDI here.
Larry Kachel indicated that the prior property owner [DLK related] had been in discussion with ALDI beginning in 2017, but the company had concluded that the traffic counts and population did not meet their minimum criteria. Kachel hastened to add that the late Jim Allen’s persistent efforts over many years to attract a store should also be recognized. Tom Howard, ALDI’s regional real estate developer, told the Banner that the city became a viable possibility for a store as a result of the success that the company has recently enjoyed with other stores in rural areas. Jon Kachel indicated that discussions have taken place with a variety of prospects regarding the property located between ALDI and Culver’s, but nothing has come together yet.
I’ll offer six remarks:
First, the City of Whitewater — through its taxpayers — had to spend $500,000 of public money to remediate — to clean up — the site of the prior private property owner, DLK Enterprises. In the language of a consultant’s assessment:
The existing structures on the property will be demolished and the site remediated, including the removal of asbestos and lead in the buildings. This cost is significant and potentially cost prohibitive for any new development.
I’m glad the City of Whitewater accepted this proposal, yet one should be clear about what this means: ordinary people had to pay to clean up the prior, local owner’s mess. The local business did not pay this money — ordinary people did. This municipal administration, under law, through the Community Development Authority and the Whitewater Common Council, had to pay this money up front to make the deal possible.
Second, It seems likely, if not certain, that the publicly-funded remediation has made the remaining area more suitable for sale. (The Brothers Kachel are free to thank the taxpayers of Whitewater at their earliest convenience.)
Third, and admittedly, the Banner‘s paragraph is a poor specimen on which to rely. There’s nothing quoted here; it’s a conversation or conversations related from one person to another, as though people were talking along a fence line. There isn’t even a claim to word-for-word accuracy: it’s an account of what someone “indicated,” not what someone said verbatim. It’s also told from a narrow perspective in which every reader should know the local people mentioned and in which the local men cited should be taken at face value3.
Fourth, the corporate real estate developer for ALDI, at least as recounted here, reasonably states the obvious about why ALDI would pick this city (once the property was cleaned up, of course). That statement says nothing about the many prior, fruitless local efforts to find a supermarket.
Sixth, equally puzzling is why anyone at the Whitewater Community Foundation’s Banner would look for answers from ALDI before seeking public documents from his or her own city. The foundational issue is about years’ long local policy to seek to a supermarket, and conduct at the Whitewater CDA across a decade’s time, not any given business arriving recently.
What portion of this libertarian blogger’s contention — ALDI is in Whitewater because the city has a new municipal administration that brought ALDI here — is accurate?
All of it, every last word.
I’m glad ALDI is here — one should be clear about how she’s here.
Denoted as a fraction, these aged men of the old guard would each look like this: 1/15,000 or 0.000067 ↩︎
The request, submitted and received under Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39, has more than one use. ↩︎
The Banner‘s author writes in his paragraph with a credulousness that suggests no awareness or no appreciation of the challenges to the modernization — normalization, truly — of local government over the last two years. ↩︎
Tuesday, September 24th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Thirteen Lives @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Docudrama/Thriller Rated PG-13 2 hours, 27 minutes (2022) The true story of the June 2018 Thailand Tham Luang Cave rescue of 13 young boys and their coach, trapped in a cavern with…
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:39, and sunset is 6:56, for 12 hours and 17 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 96.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
Before today’s grand opening, I stopped in last night and found ALDI clean, well-organized, with wide aisles. (I had never been inside an ALDI before, although we have ordered from the Janesville location through Instacart.)
Quite sharp, and a welcome business addition to Whitewater.
Updated, morning of 9.19: I added a reply to a post comment. I’ve also reproduced that reply below:
Unquestionably right. The old Sentry closed in ’15, and Whitewater went years fumbling with old-guard CDA attempts to bring a dedicated supermarket. They accomplished nothing of the kind.
ALDI is in Whitewater because the city has a new municipal administration that brought ALDI here.
