Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:45 and sunset is 4:32 for 9 hours 47 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 24.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1680, German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope.
Perhaps, as I would like, others would like to have stronger conflict-of-interest standards for government. Typically, in a nation of 340 million people, one would look to the best standards nationally to apply to the lesser standards and cronyism locally. There has been some success in Whitewater in moving toward better standards.
The problem, of course, is that the last generation locally carried on with cronyism running to the marrow: some were special-interest men, others were operatives, catspaws, etc. More than one elected official in this town has carried on waiting to hear a landlord’s his master’s voice. These types are adult men and women who have lived as though they were perpetually obliging, obedient children. Just as there are various bird calls, one could record a special-interest man’s voice, play it to these catspaws, and they’d come racing toward the origin of sound. (Someone placing a recording device and speaker in the middle of Cravath would solve more than one problem…)
Nationally, however, we have so many conflicts of interest that one cannot look to the federal government as a source of best practices. Of course not. And yet, and yet, one can still make lemonade from those lemons: the federal administration is an example of what one should not do, of how one should not conduct himself or herself.
Consider the discussion between Catherine Rampell and J.V. Last about the conduct of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and his adult children:
There is work yet to be done almost everywhere. How fortunate for those of us in small towns that Americans across the country are doing that inspiring work of demanding higher standards of ethical conduct.
Timelapse illustrates how US airspace cleared during nationwide ground stop: