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Politics

Of Course Most #NeverTrumpers Will Capitulate

Thousands who (admirably) devoted themselves to the #NeverTrump movement have already (sadly) begun to second-guess their opposition now that Trump’s heading to federal power. Ben Terris nicely describes the impulse – the natural reaction to yield to power – in Welcome to NeverTrump Grief, Stage 3: GOP skeptics bargain with Trump — and themselves. One…

‘Critics Say So’

Is Stephen Bannon, newly-appointed chief strategist to Donald Trump, a racist.  A headline to a story on that subject comes with a limitation: critics say so. (See, Is Trump’s new chief strategist a racist? Critics say so.) There’s the weakness of a legacy press: big money, high self-regard, but a small appetite for declaring definitely the character of a person’s…

Where Libertarians Stand on the Presidential Race

Libertarians have a political philosophy, and may also be members of a political party using that same name.  For those of us who are both ideologically libertarian and members of the national party (as I am), the statement yesterday from Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld (a former Republican governor of Massachusetts), summaries nicely our…

Marquette Law Poll Results (Early October ’16 Edition)

The early October Marquette Law School poll results are out, and here are two key findings from the 10.6.16 to 10.9.16 poll (the full results will be available online later this afternoon). Clinton-Trump-Johnson-Stein, Among LV: New Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin likely voters: Clinton 44% Trump 37% Johnson 9%Stein 3%#MULawPoll — MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) October 12,…

Twenty-Five Years On: School Board & City

Alternative title: Culture Advances While Beyond Politics Far Lags Behind. Over at the Banner, there’s a new feature entitled, “A mini-look at local history – a new Banner Monday project!”  The 10.10.16 entry is about two public actions from twenty-five years ago. I’m all for history (local or otherwise), but the entry is telling coming from a…

At Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting, 10.4.16

There are a few moments from last night’s Common Council meeting that I’ll consider briefly today. Budget.  It’s fall, and so for Whitewater’s local government that means a proposed budget rollout, and  Council sessions principally occupied with that subject through November. On efficiency of government services, City Manager Clapper remarked that one can expect municipal…

Preparation

I’ve posted observations from Stuart Stevens, a GOP consultant and writer not affiliated with any presidential candidate this year. Here’s another, after last night’s debate: Saw last night why campaign managers focus on helping their candidates prepare for debates & don’t live on tv talking about debates. — stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 27, 2016 Preparation…

Marquette Law Poll Results (Mid-September ’16 Edition)

The mid-September Marquette Law School poll results are out, and here are a few key findings from the 9.15.16 to 9.18.16 poll (the full results will be available online later this afternoon). Clinton-Trump, Among LV: New Marquette Law School Poll finds Clinton leading Trump among likely voters in WI 44% to 42%. #mulawpoll — MULawPoll…

Bike Lanes & Entitlement 

We’ve parts of the city with bike lanes, and more than a few people who supported their installation (of whom I was one).  How odd, then, to see – more than once – another of those bike-lane advocates blithely ignoring a bike lane to ride on the sidewalk instead.  Not a bike lane somewhere else,…

‘He Said, She Said’

Alternative title — False Balance While Dealing with Liars, Exaggerators, and Other Political Miscreants. There’s considerable consternation in the national press that traditional ‘he said, she said’ political coverage, where each side of a question gets an equal, unchallenged say, doesn’t work when one candidate is an inveterate liar: A certain etiquette has long governed…

The Web Has Changed Local Politics, Too

Over at the Wall Street Journal, there’s a story about how e-commerce has changed rural life: MANGUM, Okla.—Vince Bledsoe, a United Parcel Service Inc. delivery man in this remote tiny town, remembers the exact moment he knew that e-commerce had changed the way rural America shops. He was taping up a package a few months…

Wagon-Circling Versus Persistence 

I’ve posted before about the unraveling of medical-diagnostics startup Theranos, and founder Elizabeth Holmes, now revealed as a multi-billion-dollar fraud. See, previously, Theranos as a Cautionary Tale. The story has useful lessons even for small-town Whitewater. I’ll illustrate one of those lessons today. There’s a thorough update of Theranos’s dodgy claims now online at Vanity Fair.…