Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 7:21 PM, for 12h 56m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.8% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1781, after the Battle of the Chesapeake, the British Navy is repelled by…
183 search results for "great recession"
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 7.3.21
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:22 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 14m 30s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 33.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Independence Weekend events include amusements (with a wristband special of $20 from 12-4 PM),…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 4.23.21
by JOHN ADAMS •
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Blogging, Boosterism, City, Confidence Schemes, Coronavirus, Culture, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, School District, Special Interests, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Marketing
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the ninth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Through all the difficult events of the last two decades (a Great Recession, an opioid epidemic, economic stagnation, creeping nativism, a pandemic, a pandemic recession), Old Whitewater has responded with the same question: how can we market the town to others? If…
City, Culture, Democrats, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Subcultural City
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the sixth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s no politically predominant group in Whitewater. Strictly speaking, a subculture implies a dominant culture, but it’s less dramatic to describe Whitewater as several subcultures than as balkanized. One might call the city multicultural, but that term often implies an acceptance of…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The City’s Center-Left
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the third in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s a joke that a Democrat told me at the turn of the century about Democrats in Whitewater: “Do you know who’s the head of the Whitewater Democrats? No? Well, neither do we.” Those days are long past. The Great Recession (‘07-‘09),…
Local Government, Politics, School District
6 Asides Before the Local Spring Elections in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Assorted remarks on local politics before next week’s local election —- Spring. While one might normally prefer fall, spring is notably welcome this year. It has been, for so many, a difficult year. Some of us have come through it well (as we have from the Great Recession, opioid epidemic, and economic stagnation), but our…
City, Economy, University, UW System
The Bad Economy Isn’t Causing Good Enrollment Numbers
by JOHN ADAMS •
Catherine Rampell observes Tough economies usually push people into more education. It’s not happening this time. She writes that Usually, postsecondary enrollment increases during tough economies, as workers seek shelter from the lousy job market and invest in upgrading their skills. This can be a (small) silver lining of downturns: If displaced workers choose wisely…
Babbittry, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Disinformation, Local Government, Mendacity, Negligence, Politics, Public Relations, Reasoning, School District, Self-Dealing, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, Trumpism, University
Consequences, Accountability, Repentance, Redemption
by JOHN ADAMS •
David Frum, writing of Trump & Trumpism in The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, observes that There is no redemption without repentance. There is no repentance without accountability. There is no accountability without consequences. He rightly concludes that for the Trumpists, the absence of a moral order of accountability and repentance has meant that Even as Trump commits…
Aside, City, Coronavirus, Culture, Economy
For Whitewater, the Pandemic Reveals What Was Already There
by JOHN ADAMS •
For Whitewater – and other places – the pandemic hasn’t changed contemporary politics or culture, it has revealed plainly the character of contemporary politics and culture: divided, debilitated. Whitewater’s meaningful changes began years ago, with the Great Recession (2007-2009). For small towns like Whitewater, that recession never ended. It’s as if a man with poor…
City, Local Government
Work to Be Done (Updated)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Updated: Sunday afternoon, 12.20.20. Over these dozen years, many dozens of officials – in city government, in the school district, and at the university – have come and gone from Whitewater. Some who saw themselves, and declared themselves, irreplaceable have long since been replaced. The city has changed much since the Great Recession, and is…
Budget, City, Demographics, Government Spending, University, UW System, Wisconsin
UW-Whitewater’s Budgetary Challenges Require a Studied Approach
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater is a college town. If a college town, then a college: the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I’ve written about the university now and again. A simple summary of my views would be that Whitewater benefits from having a university, but that the school’s leaders (notably Telfer and Kopper) have failed both individuals and the community.…
City, Coronavirus, Economy
What Changes After the Pandemic?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Megan McArdle, writing at the Washington Post, speculates about What changes after covid-19? I’m betting on everything. She’s thinking about the other side of the pandemic, when the worst has subsided, and we are no longer here but instead there. Her forecast focuses on technological changes likely in the wake of the COVID-19: But on closer…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.5.20
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of thirty-eight. Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 09m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.5% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1879, Humane Society of Wisconsin is organized in Milwaukee. …