FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.24.20

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-four.  Sunrise is 5:39 AM and sunset 8:23 PM, for 14h 43m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 17.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

Recommended for reading in full —

Anne Applebaum writes The president is deploying the kind of performative authoritarianism that Vladimir Putin pioneered:

The very idea seems, on the face of it, sheer madness. In Portland, Oregon, federal security officers dressed for combat—wearing jungle-camouflage uniforms with unclear markings, carrying heavy weapons, using batons and tear gas—are patrolling the streets, making random arrests, throwing people into unmarked vans. The officers do not come from institutions that specialize in political crowd control. Instead, they come from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Coast Guard. These are people with experience patrolling the border, frisking airline passengers, and deporting undocumented immigrants—exactly the wrong sort of experience needed to carry out the delicate task of policing an angry political protest.

….

Students of modern dictatorship will find these tactics wearily familiar. Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump admires, has deployed performative authoritarianism, alongside other tools, in order to keep himself in power for many years now. In 2014, during a political crisis in Ukraine, he created an elaborate media narrative that equated Ukrainian democracy protesters with 1940s fascists. Russian state television showed scenes of violence over and over again—scenes that Putin himself had helped create, first by encouraging the former Ukrainian president to shoot at demonstrators, and then by invading the country. He sent troops in unmarked uniforms—the infamous “little green men”—into Crimea and eventually eastern Ukraine to “dominate” the situation, to use Trump’s own word for his tactics in Portland. Or at least that was the way it was meant to look on TV.

Lt. Gen. (retired) Mark Hertling writes I helped build a police force in Iraq. We refused to dress them in camo:

We were rapidly expanding our recruiting and training of future Iraqi police officers so we could put thousands in the cities quickly, but the interior minister — the Baghdad official charged with growing the nascent police force — couldn’t get us the large number of uniforms we needed for those we were graduating. The minister asked if we would accept camouflage outfits instead of police uniforms for the graduates, and he asked if we would also accept unmarked pickup trucks for service as police cruisers.

“Tell him, ‘Hell, no,’” the MP commander told me emphatically. When I asked why, he explained the history of the blue police uniform, as well as the psychological role that a uniform plays in law enforcement. The traditional “blues” started with the London “bobbies” of the early 1800s, whose uniforms were designed to distinguish the British police force from the British military. Our nation’s first organized police, in New York, continued this tradition in the 1850s, numerous other American cities followed suit, and now most nations associate the police officer with blue uniforms.

Myriad studies have shown interesting results: For example, some research shows citizens adjust behaviors when someone wearing a police uniform is nearby; others show that police uniforms are most likely to “induce feelings of safety” when compared to other uniforms or civilian clothes, and those wearing a blue uniform receive a high rate of cooperation when asked to perform a task. Wearing camouflage uniforms, our division MP commander said, would send the wrong message, especially in a society where neither the U.S. nor the Iraqi military was yet trusted by the population.

How CBS News covered the Apollo 11 splashdown:

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Trump, Unfit

Donald Trump’s Niece on Her Bestselling Family Account

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After the Trump family went to court to stop the book—and lost—it was published last week and has reportedly sold a million copies. This memoir/psychological dissection, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” is a harrowing account of a man and a clan shaped by ego, rivalry, the pursuit of wealth, and profound pathology.

Mary Trump’s depiction of her uncle as a broken human being—broken by his father, Fred, a ruthless patriarch with sociopathic traits—is more explanatory than revelatory. She doesn’t show us a Trump we haven’t already seen. But she explains how and why he became a person more concerned about his TV ratings than the deaths of 140,000 fellow Americans.

 

City, Coronavirus, Open Government, Public Health, School District

The Whitewater Unified School District’s Proposed Fall Instructional Plans

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Last night (7.22), the Whitewater Unified School District held a virtual meeting to describe a fall instructional proposal to be presented to the district’s school board on 7.27.20. The meeting was interrupted, and so the district published today (7.23) a video describing the proposal. Embedded above is that video presentation. (There was an earlier, recorded parent focus group on 7.8.20, about which I have posted. See Whitewater Schools’ Community Focus Group, 7.8.20)

Generally, the proposal calls for primarily virtual instruction from September 1 to 29, with limited face-to-face instruction (including orientation before the school year begins).  (Video, beginning at 9:10.) There would be re-evaluation thereafter, with the hope of increasing face-to-face instruction time. All students would be provided during this time a Chromebook model varying by grade level, with technology support.

There are choices before the board about food service, with three options running from in-classroom meals, and meals for virtual learners. (Video, 20:40.)

There’s an effort – still in planning – for after-school childcare options. (Video, 24:10.)

A tiered athletic plan has begun already, one that extends into the period of this proposal. (Video 30:55.)

A few remarks —

. 1. Uncertainty Calls for Caution. It’s an understatement to say that these are difficult times, and a public health threat is made worse for Whitewater by existing economic problems. This small community has, among its residents, different populations, with different daily occupations, living close to each other. For the community to fare well during a pandemic, a cautious approach is justified. It’s reason, not fear, that recommends this approach. A rushed return would not evince strength, but instead weakness.

. 2. Provison of Food. Which food-service model of the three the district recommends matters less than that adequate nutrition is issued in safe condition. It’s also necessary, as the plan provides, that virtual learners receive their school meals. That accomplishment alone would be a gain to the community — public schools in Whitewater play a critical role in assuring children are properly fed.

3. The School Board. While a cautious approach (like this one) is rational, whether this school board will embrace that approach in the face of pressure is a bet a sensible person would be reluctant to wager. These board members have not had to make a decision this important during their tenures. 

 4. Open Government. It’s regrettable that the community presentation last night was interrupted, but the best approach is always to review a video (or document) fully oneself. The recording from today gives residents an opportunity to do so. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.23.20

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-six.  Sunrise is 5:38 AM and sunset 8:24 PM, for 14h 45m 27s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM.

 On this day in 1903, Ford Motor Company sells its first car.

Recommended for reading in full —

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write Nothing Can Justify the Attack on Portland:

So why is the Trump administration sending into American cities officers who aren’t appropriately trained for the mission, are acting on legal authority that will require litigation to defend, and are being deployed to address a problem that the federal government could address by means far less provocative and in a fashion far less likely to escalate disorder?

The answer is unfortunately obvious. Having given up on controlling the pandemic that has now killed more than 140,000 Americans, and faced with dimming reelection prospects, Trump is doing his best to substantiate the tough-guy vision of the presidency that has always appealed to him. During earlier stages of his administration, he played out this fantasy along the southern border of the United States by deploying troops to the American Southwest and warning about “caravans” of travelers illegally entering the country. Now, as officers typically tasked with enforcing the border have been deployed into Portland, Trump’s apocalyptic warnings about the need for a brutal response to any perceived threat have also moved from the edge of the country into American cities.

Josh Barro writes The Economy Won’t Be Recovering Anytime Soon:

Real-time data from the Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, sponsored by Harvard and Brown universities and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that consumer spending remains far above the levels from March and April but stopped rising in mid-June and remains below last year’s levels. The recent retrenchment has been national — consumer-spending growth has stalled not just in COVID hot spots like Texas and Arizona but also in states like New York that are performing much better. That suggests consumers are looking at the big picture rather than reacting to outbreaks in their own area. And the grim outlook for schools’ reopening in the fall will serve as a further drain on the economy, making it tough for parents to resume normal work schedules.

The “V-shaped recovery” that Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow forecast as recently as July 8 is not in the cards. A double-dip recession is possible, but the most probable outcome right now looks like treading water, with the fast recovery of the late spring turning into a long, slow slog. Fewer jobs will be created, and many businesses will find themselves unable to stay afloat until conditions improve. Exactly how rough the economic recovery will be depends on many variables, but three will be key: the extent and persistence of COVID outbreaks, whether and how robustly Congress extends additional economic aid to workers and businesses, and whether and when an effective vaccine is widely distributed.

COVID19 – The big questions 6 months on:

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Business, City, Coronavirus, Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government, Public Health, School District, University

Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Temporary Mask Ordinance: 7 Points

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Updated evening of 7.22.20 with meeting video. (The discussion on Whitewater’s mask ordinance runs from 31:09 to 3:37:50.)

At last night’s meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, the seven-member council voted unanimously for a temporary mask ordinance, taking effect 8.1.20 and running through 12.31.20, requiring masks in parts of buildings open to the public, and for a few outdoor venues (farmers’ markets, for example, held on Tuesdays and Saturdays). The council waived a second reading of the ordinance. At the request of the Whitewater Unified School District’s new administrator the ordinance will apply to K12 public schools within the city.

A few remarks —

. 1. Science. There is ample evidence that masks are useful to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Arguments to the contrary often rely on distortions of data from America and abroad, and false analogies that rely on no data at all. Much – too much – credence has been given to these unfounded counterarguments.

. 2. Liberty Arguments. As I mentioned yesterday, there is a libertarian case – grounded in science, relying on personal responsibility – for wearing a mask. (See About That Proposed, Temporary Mask Ordinance for Whitewater, Wisconsin citing A Libertarian Case for Masks.) One would have preferred (obviously) that an ordinance was not necessary, but here one faces a pandemic that – by its spread – inhibits free association among people. Those who argue that a limited requirement for masks (with exceptions) for a limited time (a pandemic) is an infringement on liberty should consider that the far greater infringement on liberty will come if this pandemic is not stopped before free association among people becomes impossible. The sick and dead do not gather freely in the marketplace; illness and mortality confines them to hospitals and morgues.

3. Widespread Failure of Teaching and Government. If we haven’t taught well – and as a society we haven’t as misinformation easily spreads – we have not elected well, either. At the federal level particularly, we face a flood of lies, misinformation, and selfishness that has made this pandemic vastly worse than it might have been. The most advanced society in all the world has been reduced to the condition of an under-developed, contagion-stricken nation. It’s only through the efforts of thousands of private doctors, healthcare workers, and sensible state and local officials that our situation is not worse. 

4. Public K12 Application. As passed, the ordinance will apply – by not exempting – public K12 buildings within the city. That answers a question for the district, as long as the school board does not request an exemption in an amended municipal ordinance.

This is easily one of the most significant applications of the ordinances, and it makes sense to me.

If a mask requirement is to have value for Whitewater, it will need to apply to large publicly-accessible buildings within the city, including the public schools located here. If the Whitewater School Board retreats on this point, and if the City of Whitewater thereafter relents, the reach of mask requirement will be significantly narrower. Requirements for public buildings in Whitewater – if they’re genuine in their effort to protect public health – shouldn’t have exemptions for densely-populated public facilities. To do otherwise would make an ordinance merely ornamental.

Oddly, a local newspaper story, at the time of this writing,  doesn’t expressly mention this reach. A local website at which the council president describes himself as a staff writer also describes this application only by implication: “Exceptions include….Private K-12 schools, childcare or youth facilities that have a comprehensive safety plan in place.”

5. ‘Communication.’  This ordinance would have sparked less controversy if the case for it had been better made in advance. Instead, the only item in the agenda about the ordinance was the draft itself. Honest to goodness: it was treated beforehand like a hot potato left on a table, to see if it would grow cool enough to touch. It shouldn’t have been presented that way. Most people don’t spend time reading ordinance drafts. Proponents should have shown more work to the public: to have enough confidence in their case to present it with summaries and explanations (e.g., what will this require? and what won’t the draft require?).

Much work will now have to be done in a short time. Preparations should have been more advanced & more public (as part of a proposal).

6. Emails. During the discussion, the council president mentioned that he received something near one-hundred emails about this matter. That might seem like a lot, but it’s not a large number compared to nearby towns with controversial issues. Nearby cities smaller than Whitewater have received more public comments (or attendance) for notable issues they’ve faced. There’s much less engagement in Whitewater than is good for the community, and that the community leaders are willing to admit. 

7. Three Minutes’ Time. If a community has trouble with engagement, it does no good for the council president to ask that commenters not repeat themselves. If commenters’ have three minutes’ time to speak, and they stay on topic, they should be encouraged to use that time however they speak. Perhaps they will repeat themselves, or others: what harm is that compared to the participatory gain? Three minutes – even multiplied by many people – is hardly an imposition on the council’s time. If Sec. Clinton could offer eight hours of testimony under questioning over an eleven-hour span during the Benghazi hearings, others should take her example under their own easier circumstances without that kind of cautionary remark to residents. This isn’t a small point: simply let people talk as they wish.

The mask ordinance is a necessary expedient; implementation and compliance will yet tell the tale. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.22.20

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty.  Sunrise is 5:37 AM and sunset 8:25 PM, for 14h 47m 21s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

Whitewater’s Tax Incremental Finance Joint Review Board meets via audiovisual conferencing at 10 AM, and the Whitewater Unified School District’s board meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM.

 On this day in 1943, Allied forces capture Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Recommended for reading in full —

 Ryan McCarthy reports “Outright Lies”: Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook (‘While the social media giant says it opposes voter suppression, the data shows a stark picture: Nearly half of all top-performing posts that mentioned voting by mail were false or misleading’):

Facebook’s community standards ban “misrepresentation of who can vote, qualifications for voting, whether a vote will be counted, and what information and/or materials must be provided in order to vote.” But an analysis by ProPublica and First Draft, a global nonprofit that researches misinformation, shows that Facebook is rife with false or misleading claims about voting, particularly regarding voting by mail, which is the safest way of casting a ballot during the pandemic. Many of these falsehoods appear to violate Facebook’s standards yet have not been taken down or labeled as inaccurate. Some of them, generalizing from one or two cases, portrayed people of color as the face of voter fraud.

The false claims, including conspiracy theories about stolen elections or outright misrepresentations about voting by mail by Trump and prominent conservative outlets, are often among the most popular posts about voting on Facebook, according to a review of engagement data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned analytics tool.

On Facebook, interactions — the number of comments, likes, reactions and shares that a post attracts — are a proxy for popularity. Of the top 50 posts, ranked by total interactions, that mentioned voting by mail since April 1, 22 contained false or substantially misleading claims about voting, particularly about mail-in ballots.

 Shamane Mills reports Wisconsin Cities Getting $6.3M In Grants To Help With Elections During Pandemic:

Five Wisconsin cities will get a total of $6.3 million in grants to help administer elections during the coronavirus pandemic.

The money comes from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit voting advocacy group, and will be distributed to Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine.

“We’re obviously thrilled,” said Racine Mayor Cory Mason. “The big winners in all of this are the voters who are going to be able to vote safely this year in the midst of the pandemic.”

Long lines at some Wisconsin polling places during the state’s April election, which was conducted under a statewide stay-at-home order, drew national attention as voters and poll workers weighed potential safety risks against civic duty.

Ecologists Dig Prairie Dogs, And You Should Too:

Prairie dogs are ecosystem engineers. As they go about their lives, they change their surroundings in ways that provide shelter, food and even nurseries for other species. On the grasslands of Montana, prairie dog colonies are islands of biodiversity.

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Republicans, Trump

Republican Voters Against Trump: Tonia from Utah

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While not a member of a political party, one can still sympathize with – and support – the many thousands of additional Republicans each day who reject Trumpism.

Small government. Fiscal responsibility. Religious Faith. These are the values Tonia holds dear. She lays out point by point how Trump does not represent these values. She can’t vote for him, and neither should you.

Check out hundreds of stories of anti-Trump Republican voters at https://rvat.org

If you’d like to tell your story, submit a video at https://rvat.org/tell-your-story

To get involved in the project, go to https://rvat.org/get-involved

To help support their mission, go to https://rvat.org/donate

City, Common Council, Coronavirus, Local Government, Open Government, Public Health

About That Proposed, Temporary Mask Ordinance for Whitewater, Wisconsin

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So, there’s a proposed, temporary mask ordinance before the Whitewater Common Council tonight. Needless to say, there’s been a lot of talk about the measure (and so a lot of emails sent my way – thanks much for these messages). Readers have asked what I think of the proposal. I’ve offered a simple answer: I’d like to see the proposal, and hear it discussed, before deciding.

In the packet for tonight’s agenda, there’s an agenda item about the first reading (and mention about UW-Whitewater campus’s pandemic plan), but no other information: no listed item sponsor, no accompanying packet memorandum, no other information about the topic. (The first reading of this ordinance has less accompanying agenda-packet information than many advisory items have.)

Obvious point: I am in favor of people wearing masks. There has always been a Libertarian Case for Masks, a case requires personal responsibility to assure a common good apart from government action. Objections to masks only lead to limits on free association:

Where mask-wearing has taken hold — in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, for example — life has proceeded in quasi-normalcy: Many businesses and schools are open, and people are free to socialize. The comparatively repressive East Asian democracies have retained more civil liberties than the U.S. thanks, in part, to the rational behavior of their citizens.

….

But the anti-mask crowd now advocates eschewing one’s individual interest in favor of empty symbolic gestures [opposing masks] — an example of the irrational behavior that statists use to argue against free markets.

Personal responsibility asks no more of someone than a cold, rational calculation (offering warm, humane results). It does, however, ask for some discipline, deliberation, and discernment.

In this proposed, mandatory-but-temporary ordinance enforcement matters. The least one should expect is a discussion from those city employees or council members who placed the item on the agenda, and from those who will enforce it. (Enforcement should be related to this public health matter and not be pretextual.)

Requests to take a side, before one has heard from those proposing the ordinance, and heard from those enforcing it, don’t make sense to me. In these years since FREE WHITEWATER began (2007), I have represented no faction, interest, or group in the city. In all this time, I have been an emissary of one, so to speak. The more time that passes, the more sensible this approach has proved to be.

The session (on masks and other major items) begins tonight at 6:30 PM.

Disinformation, Foreign Affairs, Sen. Ron Johnson

Sen. Ron Johnson: Launderer of Foreign Disinformation?

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Natasha Bertrand, Kyle Cheney, and Andrew Desiderio report Dem leaders demand FBI briefing on ‘foreign interference campaign’ targeting lawmakers. There’s a possible Wisconsin connection:

Among the Democrats’ concerns is that a Senate investigation being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has become a vehicle for “laundering” a foreign influence campaign to damageDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, according to two people familiar with the demand.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded the all-Congress briefing Monday, citing “specific” intelligence that a foreign influence operation targeted lawmakers to “launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity.”

Though the letter did not mention the Johnson investigation, it included a classified addendum that the two sources say identified the probe as one of the sources of their concern.

“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in their letter, which was also signed by the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).

All four Democratic signatories are members of the Gang of Eight, a group of eight lawmakers who are briefed on classified intelligence by the executive branch.

There are two kinds of launderers in a matter like this: (1) those who know they are legitimatizing disinformation or (2) those who genuinely believe the disinformation they’re legitimizing is the truth.  The shrewd course for a foreign power would be to find someone in the latter category of launderers, best described as weak-minded dupes. That type could help wash away the stain of lies without any intentional deception to which they might later confess.

As for someone in the United States Senate who’d fall into that category…

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.21.20

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with light evening rain, and a high of eighty-one.  Sunrise is 5:36 AM and sunset 8:25 PM, for 14h 49m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

 

 Whitewater’s Common Council meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM.

 On this day in 1921, General Billy Mitchell tests his theory of air power by flying a De Havilland DH-4B fighter in a bombing demonstration that showed a naval ship could be sunk by air bombardment.

Recommended for reading in full —

Gregory Pratt and Jeremy Gorner report Homeland Security making plans to deploy some 150 agents in Chicago this week, with scope of duty unknown:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities.

The Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, agents are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts, according to sources familiar with the matter, though a specific plan on what the agents will be doing had not been made public.

Federal agents being used to confront street protesters in Portland, Oregon, has raised alarm in many circles. Chicago, too, has dealt with protests that have led to injuries in recent days.

At an unrelated news conference Monday morning, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she has great concerns about the general possibility of President Donald Trump sending feds to Chicago based on what has happened in Portland.

If Trump wants to help, she said, he could boost federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives resources and fully fund prosecutors.

“We don’t need federal agents without any insignia taking people off the streets and holding them, I think, unlawfully,” Lightfoot said.

 Eder Campuzano reports Feds, right-wing media paint Portland as ‘city under siege.’ A tour of town shows otherwise:

One America News Network describes “violence gripping the city.” A Fox News headline blares “Portland protesters flood police precinct, chant about burning it down.” The New York Post reported Saturday that Portland “descended into violence.”

Many people who live in Portland, including Alexander, heard over the past few days from worried relatives in other states who feared that their loved ones in Portland might have been affected by fires or caught in police crossfire as they went about their day.

The images that populate national media feeds, however, come almost exclusively from a tiny point of the city: a 12-block area surrounding the Justice Center and federal courthouse.

 

And they occur exclusively during late-night hours in which only a couple hundred or fewer protesters and scores of police officers are out in the city’s coronavirus-hollowed downtown.

Those events are hardly representative of daily life, including peaceful anti-racism demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters, in a city of 650,000 people that encompasses 145 square miles.

The vast majority of Portland residents spend quiet home-bound lives on hushed tree-lined streets with coronavirus and its resulting economic catastrophe as the greatest threat to their well-being.

Crying bear cub climbs ladder out of Eagle River basement to freedom:

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