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Business, CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Development, Local Government, Special Interests

Daily Bread for 2.1.24: Private Company, Public Company, Public Agency

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 47. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset 5:08 for 9h 59m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 63.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Ethics Committee meets at 5 PM. 

On this day in 1942, Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.

There’s a difference between a private company, a public company, and a public agency. Ordinary people understand this difference, but special interests conflate these three different arrangements to maximize their influence over wholly public agencies. 

First the distinctions, with help from Matt Levine’s description of Elon Musk’s influence on private companies as against public companies. A private company is held individually or by shareholders with shares that do not trade on a public exchange. A public company is a private enterprise with shares that do trade on a public exchange (e.g., the New York Stock Exchange). Levine writes of Musk’s considerable leeway with a purely private company like SpaceX:

At all but one of his companies, he could stroll into the boardroom, throw a big bag of ketamine down onto the table, and say “I need the company to spend $50 million to build a giant golden statue of me riding a rocket,”1 and

  1. the board would be like “yes definitely let’s do it,”

  2. the board members themselves probably are, or represent, big shareholders of the company, and as shareholders they would happily go along with the statue plan to keep Musk happy and dedicated to their company,

  3. the other shareholders, the ones without board seats, are probably even bigger Musk fans, and are probably working on their own Musk statues in their garages anyway, so they’ll be fine with the company spending their money on a corporate gold statue, and

  4. nobody else really has any standing to complain.

And so in fact when Musk went to SpaceX and asked to borrow $1 billion until payday so that he could buy Twitter Inc., the board was like “here’s the check, we’ve left the amount blank, take whatever you need.” And, look, was there a Wall Street Journal article saying “hey that’s weird”? There was; it was weird. Did anything come of that? No. SpaceX could just do that: Musk controls SpaceX, the board loves him, the shareholders love him, nobody in a position to complain has any complaints, and everybody else is in no position to

SpaceX is a bigger version of many private companies: these companies may have one or more owners, and those owners may be shareholders, but those shares are not available for ready trading by the general public. These owners have considerable leeway. 

By contrast, a public company is also a private enterprise, but it offers shares on a public market to which the general public has access during trading hours. Trading on public markets comes with public — governmental — rules & regulations. (There’s a Securities and Exchange Commission, after all.) Levine explains how rules for a public company like Tesla limit Musk:

Tesla is a public company, which means that, even if 99% of shareholders love him, if 1% of shareholders don’t, they can sue.3 They can say: “Look, the board has a fiduciary duty to manage the company on behalf of all shareholders. Giving Musk a giant golden statue of himself is not necessary, or a good business decision, or fair to the shareholders; it’s just the controlling shareholder fulfilling his own whims with corporate money, and an ineffective board of directors giving him whatever he wants. He should have to give it back.” And they will go to court, and the shareholders will make those arguments, and the board will say — accurately! — “no you see giving him this giant golden statue is necessary for us to get more of his incredibly valuable time and attention,” and that will sound bad in court. And then a judge will get to decide whether the deal was fair to shareholders or not, and if it was not, the judge can make Musk pay the company back. Even if the board, and 99% of the shareholders, want him to keep it!

Levine’s description of Musk ends here, understandably, because Levine is writing about Musk’s role in private and public companies. An analysis of these companies is distinct — as Levine knows intuitively — from public agencies and governmental bodies. 

Special interests, however, don’t see it that way: they look at public bodies (a town council, a school board, or a community development agency) and expect that they can manipulate and control that public institution like a private company. They see a public body as another of their private possessions. 

No, and no again: formed only by statutes and ordinances, maintained only under statutes, ordinances, and publicly-adopted policies, these councils, boards, and agencies are public from alpha to omega. 

Special interest men in Whitewater take public bodies and illegitimately and wrongfully refashion them through catspaws into versions of private companies. In this way, they place their hands around a public agency and squeeze until it does their private bidding.  

Which appointed officials come along matters less to the health of this community than that special interests meet their match from among residents until attrition and exhaustion take their toll on that scheming faction. 

What’s in the Night Sky February 2024: 

Daily Bread, Education, Legislation, School District, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 1.31.24: Vos’s Truancy Plan Looks Speculative

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:09 and sunset 5:06 for 9h 57m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 72.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

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

On this day in 1961, the chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space on Project Mercury’s Mercury-Redstone 2 flight. 

  Speaker Vos, having cycled futilely through several political and cultural issues in search of a winner, now offers Wisconsin a truancy plan. Corrinne Hess reports Truancy could mean being held back a grade under new proposal: 

Wisconsin students who miss 30 or more days of school could be held back a grade, under a new proposal. 

If the legislation is approved, beginning in the 2025-26 school year, public school students and students at private schools that receive state money who miss a month or more of class would not advance to the next grade.

Currently, state law requires school boards to have policies stating what conditions a student must meet to be promoted from third to fourth grade, fourth to fifth grade and eight to ninth grade.

The bill, and five other truancy-related proposals, are the result of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’s Task Force on Truancy. If passed by the Legislature, the legislation would need approval from Gov. Tony Evers.

The state’s attendance rate reached a new low of 91 percent in the 2021-22 school year and nearly a quarter of students missed at least a month of school, according to data from the state Department of Public Instruction. 

New truancy data won’t be released until March 2024.

Vos aims to solve a socio-economic problem that varies across hundreds of Wisconsin districts with uniform state statutes. Success seems doubtful. Alternatively, Vos aims to convince the delusionally gullible WISGOP base that He’s got this, Wisconsin! Your dawg Robin’s on it! 

The alternative explanation is the more probable. 

‘Like a moth to a flame’ — this strange insect behavior is finally explained: 

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Newspapers, Presidential Race 2024

Daily Bread for 1.30.24: Hey, Journal Sentinel — Yeah, Sure, They’re Both Old. If That’s All You Can See, You’re Politically Blind.

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset 5:05 for 9h 54m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1930, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union orders the confiscation of lands belonging to the Kulaks in a campaign of Dekulakization, resulting in the executions and forced deportations of millions.

Trump is old, and Biden is old. Neither is getting any younger. And yet, and yet, if that’s all someone sees in these men, then he or she is politically blind. Along comes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with a story that gives voice to the ignorant and obtuse among us in ‘They’re both dinosaurs’: Concerns about age drive lack of enthusiasm for Biden and Trump.

It’s much easier for the Journal Sentinel to publish a story with a handful of snide quotes from superficial voters than to use their print & web space to show political and legal differences between the candidates.

Perhaps that’s why the Journal Sentinel Has Lost 81% Of Readers. 

Meanwhile, in Whitewater, an evergreen reminder: Telling readers who the applicants are for local offices (before the deadline has arrived!) matters less than what those applicants believe and how they would act on those beliefs. 

I’ll wait.

Mona Lisa Glass Case Splattered With Soup by Food Protesters in Paris:

Environmental activists splattered the Mona Lisa with soup on Sunday morning as they called for the right to healthy and sustainable food. The protesters threw tomato soup at Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, which is protected by a glass case in the Louvre museum in Paris.

The painting wasn’t damaged and the gallery where it hangs was closed for an hour for cleaning, the Louvre said. The room reopened at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Quick comments: (1) Most performative protests are unproductive or counter-productive, (2) throwing soup at painting to protest for “healthy and sustainable food” is nuttily counter-productive, (3) Oh, my — France went from Devenue and Belmondo on the run to Riposte Alimentaire‘s soup-hurling act? That’s a disturbing devolution if ever there were one. 

Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.29.24: $3,250,000,000 is Still a Big Number

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 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 40. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset 5:04 for 9h 52m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 86.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1936, the first inductees (Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson) into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced

 Robert D’Andrea reports Wisconsin’s budget surplus is shrinking but still large:

Wisconsin’s budget surplus will be less than what was projected six months ago. 

The state is predicted to have a surplus of $3.25 billion by the end of the current budget cycle, according to a new estimate of the state’s general fund from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. 

That’s nearly $800,000 less than what was projected when the current budget was signed last June. 

Three billion, two-hundred fifty million is still a big number…

French farmers overturn truck carrying red peppers:

Quick replies: (1) Don’t waste food, (2) don’t start fires, (3) don’t overturn trucks.

Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.28.24: The Wisconsin Amphicar

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 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:12 and sunset 5:02 for 9h 50m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.

Wisconsin Life | The Ultimate Land and Water Adventure:

Why Apple Isn’t Happy About App Store Changes:

Daily Bread, Education

Daily Bread for 1.27.24: Cursive Handwriting Makes a Comeback (in California)

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 Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset 5:01 for 9h 47m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1967, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting the usage of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

Cursive Handwriting Makes a Comeback (in California):

‘Dense fog on an Alaska highway caused a 37-vehicle pileup:

CDA, City, Culture, Daily Bread, Development, Local Government

Daily Bread for 1.26.24: For Years Ahead, Whitewater Will Have to Adjust from Plugging Leaks to Surfing the Waves

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 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see light rain with a high of 36. Sunrise is 7:14 and sunset 5:00 for 9h 45m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1915, an act of Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.

Policymaking in Whitewater has traditionally been slow, short-sighted, and dull.

For the next few years, at least, to be successful Whitewater will have to adjust from plugging leaks to surfing the waves.

At first, wave upon wave will seem unpredictable, as though the water, itself were awry, askew. And awry comes at you fast: “Foresight allows the avoidance of many problems, yet not all. For the unavoidable remainder, it’s “what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time.” Whitewater, historically, has never been adept at either foresight or alternative missions.”

The tired refrain that this is how we do business around here won’t be good enough. Not even close to good enough.

Over time, the skillful and adroit will manage the waves and enjoy the ride. 

Protesters across Germany rally against the far-right:

Bad Ideas, Cats

Friday Catblogging: Man Ruins His Marriage by Returning Cat to Shelter

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In the Toronto Star, so-called advice columnist Ellie Tesher gave her opinion to a man who returned the family cat to a shelter because he was too shiftless to care for it:

Q I agreed to get a cat on the promise that my wife and her son would be the primary caregivers. After a few years, I realized I was the one dealing with the litter, food and water, and even occasional vet visits. Meanwhile, my wife and her son just enjoyed the fun parts. I am not a pet-hater, I just never had any growing up.

The cat eventually died of kidney failure. Then my wife wanted another cat. I made it very clear that the minute I needed to do ANYTHING, for whatever reason, I would return the cat to the animal shelter. She didn’t believe me, until one day the cat was gone, and I informed her which animal shelter I took it to.

I think this marriage is over. Do you agree?

Catnapped

A It’s not up to me, nor the cat. Do what feels right. You don’t get nine lives.

Tesher couldn’t have given worse advice:

(1) This man’s ultimatum shows his controlling and slothful nature. There must be therapists in Canada. Tesher should have recommended that he consider intensive institutional care.

(2) “Do what feels right” is bad advice since those feelings led him to do something wrong.

(3) This cat was subjected to the stress of a shelter, and might have been given away or euthanized before the spouse and her son could rescue him.

(4) No, buddy, you’re not a pet-hater. You’re a cat-hater. I know one when I see one.

(5) Of course the marriage should be over. The spouse and her son should get as far away from this miscreant as possible.

(6) This libertarian blogger has great respect for the people of Canada, and is confident that the spouse can find a better Canadian partner (if she would like one) than the worthless sack of crap who took her cat to a shelter.

(7) I should sincerely hope that, while this man is walking alone one day on a cold Toronto street, a pack of tabbies attacks him, and inflicts the maximum damage possible through strategic bites to the most vulnerable parts of his anatomy. If there’s any justice on this planet, this guy has it coming.

(8) The Star should cancel Tesher’s bad-advice column immediately.

(9) Come on, Canada — you can do better.

 

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, January 30, 1 PM @ Seniors in the Park, What Happens Later

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Tuesday, January 30th at 1 PM, there will be a showing of What Happens Later @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Romance/Comedy

Rated R (Language)

1 hour, 43 minutes (2023)

Two ex-lovers see each other for the first time in years when they are both snowed in at an airport overnight. Starring Meg Ryan and David Duchovny.

One can find more information about What Happens Later at the Internet Movie Database.

America, City, Daily Bread, Development, Economy, Local Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.25.24: Now is Whitewater’s Time to Seize an Improving National and State Economy

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:59 for 9h 43m 36s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 5 PM and the Board of Zoning Appeals meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1945, the Battle of the Bulge ends in an Allied victory. 

When the national economy is poor, it’s unlikely that Whitewater (having for years lagged the national economy) would do well. When the Wisconsin economy is poor, it’s unlikely that Whitewater (having for years lagged the state economy) would do well. Even when the national economy was doing well years ago, Whitewater was behind. 

As it turns out, happily, the state and national economies are again doing well. Those favorable economic conditions are an opportunity for Whitewater — now’s the time to join in America’s and Wisconsin’s achievements. Of those national economic gains, there’s more good news from across a continent with 340 million people. Ben Casselman reports U.S. Economy Grew at 3.3% Rate in Latest Quarter (‘The increase in gross domestic product, while slower than in the previous period, showed the resilience of the recovery from the pandemic’s upheaval’):

The U.S. economy continued to grow at a healthy pace at the end of 2023, capping a year in which unemployment remained low, inflation cooled and a widely predicted recession never materialized.

Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was down from the 4.9 percent rate in the third quarter but easily topped forecasters’ expectations and showed the resilience of the recovery from the pandemic’s economic upheaval.

The latest reading is preliminary and may be revised in the months ahead.

Forecasters entered 2023 expecting the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign of interest-rate increases to push the economy into reverse. Instead, growth accelerated: For the full year, measured from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023, G.D.P. grew 3.1 percent, up from less than 1 percent the year before and faster than in any of the five years preceding the pandemic. (A different measure, based on average output over the full year, showed annual growth of 2.5 percent in 2023.)

Emphasis added. 

Now’s the time. 

Rare double brood of cicadas will emerge this spring:

City, Local Government, School District

Daily Bread for 1.24.24: Rashomon-upon-Cravath

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 Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset 4:57 for 9h 41m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 41, Claudius is proclaimed Roman emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.

  Whitewater has been in, and will yet remain for years, in a local version of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon: people in the city will express markedly different, sometimes contradictory, accounts of behavior and events. While it’s natural for people to see events with slight variations, Whitewater is in a period where accounts and perspectives even within the same small town are now disparate and exclusive of other views.

And so, and so, not everyone will agree on which animals are leopards, so to speak. America is now like this, Wisconsin is now like this, and Whitewater is now like this. To say as much is neither a challenge nor a taunt. It’s perhaps the one observation on which everyone can still agree. (It’s true, by the way, even if others don’t agree.) 

A question for those in, and those following, local government presents itself: How will you manage in conditions where there are basic disagreements about the very facts under consideration?

Wanting conditions to return to yesteryear’s certainty (never as certain as assumed in retrospect) won’t work. Whitewater’s policymakers will not be able to reconstitute the past. Yesterday’s tricks won’t work with today’s dogs. 

Those who can adjust temperamentally and intellectually to uncertainty and essential disagreement will fare well (or well enough). Those who are looking for predictability and consensus will fare poorly. 

As always, a sound approach: The hotter the temperature, the colder the man. 

Rashomon is an extraordinary film. If you’ve not seen it, here’s a new trailer to entice you.

Bigotry, City, Daily Bread, Racism, University

Daily Bread for 1.23.24: Neo-Nazis Arrive Into, and Depart from, Whitewater

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be snowy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:56 for 9h 39m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM. 

On this day in 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley.

  Dozens of stories, many from national publications, now report on the arrival and departure on late Sunday afternoon (1.21.23) of the of the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe onto the UW-Whitewater campus. Of those stories, reporting from Kimberly Wethal at the Wisconsin State Journal, UW-Whitewater condemns antisemitic incident on campus, is the most concisely informative:

UW-Whitewater’s chancellor is condemning an incident Sunday night during which a small group of people projected Nazi and antisemitic imagery on the side of a residence hall and chanted white supremacist slogans.

Shortly before 5:45 p.m. Sunday, campus police received reports of four people, dressed all in red, standing outside Knilans residence hall on the east side of campus, chanting phrases such as “there will be blood” and projecting a swastika and antisemitic phrases onto the side of the residence hall.

The group’s actions and appearance are consistent with members of “the Blood Tribe,” a Neo-Nazi group that has made two appearances at UW-Madison and a pro-LGBT event in Watertown last year.

The group’s goal is to scare or intimidate people with their presence, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights antisemitism and extremism in the U.S.

In an email to students and staff, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Corey King called the actions of the group “abhorrent,” adding that they go against the university’s core values.

“At UW-Whitewater, we strive to create a safe community where everyone feels a sense of belonging. We take pride in our Warhawk family. We reject hate in all its forms,” King said. “On this first day of the new semester, I ask all of us to reaffirm our commitment to our core values and not let the actions of an outside group that seeks to incite hate, division and fear take us off course.”

In the email, King said the university has no reason to believe the group presents a threat to campus, and the group left shortly after police were called. But university police have increased patrols.

One cannot say whether this fanatical band will be back, but they were not from here, were not welcome here, and will never be welcome here. 

NISAR: Tracking Earth’s Changes From Space (Mission Overview):

City, Daily Bread, Development, Economy, Employment, Entitlement

Daily Bread for 1.22.24: Wisconsin’s Favorable Employment Statistics

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 Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 33. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:55 for 9h 37m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM and the Police & Fire Commission at 6 PM. The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 5:30 PM, and the full school board enters closed session shortly after 6:30 PM with open session scheduled at 7 PM.  

On this day in 1957, the New York City “Mad Bomber,” George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

Employment levels remain positive for Wisconsin. Erik Gunn reports Wisconsin unemployment remains low in December as jobs continue to grow:

Wisconsin’s monthly employment snapshots finished the year with a new record for the number of jobs and an upbeat assessment from the state’s labor department.

A survey of employers projected a total of nearly 3.03 million jobs in Wisconsin in December 2023, according to the Department of Workforce Development (DWD).

Based on a separate survey of households, DWD projected an unemployment rate of 3.3%, the same as in November 2023. The unemployment rate calculates how many people are not working in the total labor force, which consists of people who are working or actively seeking work.

The data show Wisconsin employers and workers are “just continuing the trends we saw all year,” said DWD’s chief economist, Dennis Winters, at a media briefing Thursday. “And the way things are shaping up for 2024, we expect the same thing.”

The employers survey counted a total of 3,026,500 nonfarm jobs in Wisconsin in December, a gain of 80,000 from a year ago.

There is, however, a requirement to capitalize on the state’s improving outlook: it takes high-quality leaders and ideas to make the most of good times. 

Whitewater has been in this situation before, in 2020 before the pandemic, when local men looked around at a positive national and state economy and bemoaned better times had not reached Whitewater.

See Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom:

“We’ve just had one of the most booming economies that this country’s seen in close to 60 years. And we’re not at the table. We’re not playing. We’re not out there.”

Well, yes. There was a national boom, uplifting many cities, but it passed by Whitewater. What did Whitewater get after the Great Recession, years into a national boom? Whitewater received a designation as a low-income community.  (The gentlemen speaking, these ‘Greater Whitewater’ development men, were by their own accounts at the center of local CDA policy during most of the years that the state and national boom ignored Whitewater.)

Leaders then were responsible for having positioned the city poorly. Once again: it takes high-quality leaders and ideas to make the most of good times. 

Fire breaks out at Russian gas terminal in Baltic Sea port: