There are two national publications with recent updates on the Foxconn project, and each report highlights fundamental problems with the billions in public subsidies for that foreign corporation. Here’s a roundup of the latest on this dodgy corporate welfare: Bruce Murphy (writing online for national tech site The Verge) reports Wisconsin’s $4.1 Billion Foxconn Boondoggle (“Gov.…
Mendacity
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Government Spending, Mendacity, Newspapers
New Developments About Jefferson, Wisconsin’s ‘Warriors & Wizards’ Festival
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are new, troubling developments concerning Jefferson, Wisconsin’s ‘Warriors & Wizards’ festival, an event about which this website has been consistently critical (for many sound reasons). One can wait a day or so to see what this new reporting shows (and how accurate and honest the reporting is, considering how wobbly it’s been). In the…
Babbittry, Mendacity, Newspapers, That Which Paved the Way
Iceberg Aside, Titanic‘s Executive Pleased with Ship’s Voyage
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Despite ridicule from countless people, the Daily Union continues to deceive about the performance of Jefferson, Wisconsin’s the latest ‘Wizards and Warriors’ festival. Readers have this awaiting them: Weather aside, Cramer pleased by fest outcome. This is something like shipping magnate J. Bruce Ismay insisting that the Titanic‘s maiden voyage wasn’t too bad, except for…
Babbittry, Mendacity, Newspapers
What Else Would a Publisher Lie About?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Across America, newspapers and television stations often have stories on consumer protection, where readers or viewers can have consumer problems addressed. These stories are popular because they reassure readers that the paper or station is on the side of ordinary readers and viewers. Imagine the opposite posture: where a newspaper lies to ordinary readers to…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Mendacity, Open Government, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Walker Cabinet Officers’ Open Letter
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Four cabinet secretaries of the Walker Administration have come forward to criticize the governor, and three of them have co-written an open letter against Walker’s relentless emphasis on political gain over sound policies. One of the signatories of the letter is Paul Jadin, who was Walker’s first Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation leader. It says all…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Bad Ideas, City, Culture, Ethics, Local Government, Mendacity, Official Misconduct, Politics, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, University
Act Utilitarianism Isn’t Merely a National Scourge
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Trump justifies his treatment of Christine Blasey Ford by the outcome of the Kavanaugh hearings: “It doesn’t matter. We won.”
One wouldn’t have to go to Washington, or wait for Trump to speak, to find this sort of act utilitarianism. Long before Trump’s 2016 campaign, officials and self-described community leaders in small towns across America shared a similar calculus. For the sake of some imagined overall gain, individual injuries and injustices have been swept aside.
And so, and so — officials justify financial and personal injuries to individuals on behalf of the supposed greater good of being ‘community-minded,’ of defending the ‘university family,’ or some such collective claim.
Trump’s act utilitarianism did not begin with Trump: it grew in cities and towns in which factions decided they’d take what they want, and conveniently sweep aside others by use of nebulous ‘community’ principles. (In the video above, Trump betrays his amorality early on, as he shrugs his shoulders when part of Christine Blasey Ford’s injury is recounted to him.)
In most of these cases of supposed collective gain, of course, it turns out to be a particular politician, particular businessman, or particular university official who reaps the most at the expense of ordinary individuals, but these community leaders would prefer one didn’t look too closely into that selfish benefit, thank you kindly.
Whether a highly-placed person’s selfish gain, or community’s supposed overall gain, the disregard for individual rights reveals a dark, calculating amorality.
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Government Spending, Local Government, Mendacity, Newspapers, That Which Paved the Way
Found Footage: Daily Union Arrives on Subscriber’s Doorstep
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
See from the Daily Union Bus routes, security and parking addressed for Jefferson festival and Final preparations for Oct. 19-21 festival under way in Jefferson (reporter Ryan Whisner & publisher Brian V. Knox). But see Sean Biggerstaff’s thread on Twitter (“I am disappointed and also angered to say that I will not be appearing at the @WandWFestival in Jefferson,…
Bad Ideas, City, Culture, Government Spending, Local Government, Mendacity, Newspapers
Why Dirty Dogs Roam With Impunity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’ve written before about the foul mess that is the ‘Warriors and Wizards’ festival in Jefferson (formerly a Harry Potter festival before Warner Bros. shut that usage down). So, how is it that city officials, ‘development professionals,’ lying publishers, and bottom-shelf promoters get away with wasting tens of thousands in public funds each year while simultaneously…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Culture, Local Government, Mendacity
Who Will Jefferson’s Residents Believe: Officials or Their Own Eyes?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For three years, the Harry Potter Festival (in Edgerton and then Jefferson, Wisconsin) has been a fiasco and disappointment. (Note: I’ve not experienced personal disappointment: hundreds of patrons have.) It’s now re-branded as the Warriors and Wizards festival – because ignorant promoters ran afoul of the intellectual property rights of Warner Bros. – and with…
Elections, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Russia, Trump-Russia
Russian disinformation campaigns
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alina Polyakova asks What do Russian disinformation campaigns look like, and how can we protect our elections?: As technological capabilities progress, the threat of political warfare is becoming an even more serious threat to democratic elections. David M. Rubenstein Fellow Alina Polyakova analyzes past disinformation campaigns and political warfare tools employed by hostile foreign actors…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Education, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Politics, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
Redefining Reality
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and candidate for governor, has a new video about a political effort to redefine reality. The video is about Scott Walker, but it might as easily have been about any number of local politicians in Whitewater or other small Wisconsin towns, with tax breaks for out-of-towners and cronies…
America, Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Mendacity, Politics, Trump, Trump-Russia
No Sudden Accident
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that Trump has a new theory about Russian involvement in the November 2018 elections – he’s contending that the Russians plan to help the Democrats: I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher…
Babbittry, CDA, City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Negligence, Poverty, Public Relations, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, WEDC
Whitewater Listed as the Poorest City in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Samuel Stebbins and Michael B. Sauter, from 24/7 Wall Street, report Which town in your state is the poorest? Here is the list @ Gannett’s USA Today. For Wisconsin, they contend it’s Whitewater: Town median household income: $30,934 State median household income: $54,610 Town poverty rate: 38.2% Town population: 14,840 Whitewater has both the lowest median household income and the…
City, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Ethics, Gov. Walker, Local Government, Mendacity, Paul Ryan, Politics, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
The Price of Trumpism is Ruin
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Craig Gilbert looks at the careers of Priebus, Ryan, and Walker: They led the “Cheesehead Revolution,” the GOP’s audacious conquest of Wisconsin. They offered a model for bridging Republican frictions between establishment and base. They became national figures. They ran into Donald Trump. They suffered. They bent to his rise. Now one (Priebus) has left…