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Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.4.22: The Best of the ‘Least Change’ Redistricting Options

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 41.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 5:48 PM for 11h 25m 04s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.1% its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1917, Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.

Under Wisconsin redistricting from a decade ago, large changes favoring the WISGOP ignored any principle of least change, but this year a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court decided that least change would be the standard to which redistricting would be held.  Least change now favors drastic WISGOP changes a decade ago.

For it all, the state’s court decided for the Evers Administration’s version of least change. Shawn Johnson and Bridgit Bowden report Wisconsin Supreme Court chooses Evers’ ‘least changes’ redistricting plan (‘The plan from Evers’ would still maintain Republican leans in Wisconsin’s political maps’):

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Thursday it would use the “least changes” redistricting plans submitted by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers as Wisconsin’s political maps for the next decade.

In the 4-3 decision, conservative swing Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote that of all the plans submitted, Evers’ plan best complied with criteria laid out by the court and met all the requirements of the Wisconsin and United States constitutions.

The court ruled in November that any new redistricting plan should make as few changes as possible to the maps the Republican Legislature passed, and former Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed, in 2011. That meant any new map approved by the court would lean Republican.

According to an analysis by Marquette University research fellow John Johnson, Republicans would still keep strong majorities in the Legislature under Evers’ map. Even in a statewide tie election, Democrats would only be likely to win 38 out of 99 seats in the Assembly and 11 out of 33 seats in the Senate.

But choosing Evers’ maps over competing plans submitted by Republican members of Congress and the Legislature was, under the circumstances, a win for Democrats. In the Legislature, it could mean the difference between simple Republican majorities and supermajorities that could override any governor’s vetoes.

The opinion of the court appears immediately below:

VoteVets on the Party of Putin:

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, March 8th, 1 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Belfast

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It’s Oscars Month and the Seniors in the Park Bijou Theatre will be showing three of the Nominated Films. The Academy Awards ceremony is Sunday evening, March 27th.

Tuesday, March 8th at 1 PM, there will be a showing of Belfast @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Biography/Drama/History

Rated PG-13

1 hour, 38 minutes (2021)

A young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous “Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Nominated for Best Picture, Sound, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), and Best Supporting Actor (Ciaran Hinds).

One can find more information about Belfast at the Internet Movie Database.

Enjoy.

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Foreign Affairs, Freedom of Speech, Tantrums, War

Daily Bread for 3.3.22: A Ukrainian Family Prepares for War in Kyiv

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 33.  Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 5:47 PM for 11h 22m 10s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.9% its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM, and Whitewater Fire Department, Inc. holds a business meeting at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1776, the first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau.

Here in Whitewater, and in larger communities across America, some had fits during the pandemic over ordinary political speech, to mere words and books and ideas, insisting laughably through it all that they were men of strength and common sense while whining and tantruming like children. They have been, and are, as ridiculous as they are ignorant. 

On another continent, a worthy people now defends itself against a dictator’s army. They experience deprivations unknown across America, and do so with a resolution uncommon among us:

p53, Guardian of the Genom:

Daily Bread, Elections, Gableman, Law, Mendacity, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.2.22: Michael Gableman’s Masterpiece of Mediocrity and Mendacity

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 6:27 AM and sunset 5:46 PM for 11h 19m 16s of daytime.  The moon is new with none its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1901, United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.

 Having waited these many months, Wisconsin now sees the results of Michael Gableman’s awkwardly titled Second Interim Investigative Report On the Apparatus & Procedures of the Wisconsin Elections System: 

Having read it all, one can only marvel at Gableman’s masterpiece of mediocrity and mendacity. It’s not bad lawyering; it’s no lawyering at all.

And so, and so, it will persuade no one.  Those who would accept anything will accept this report. Those who expect something will find it falls below their expectations.

It’s been a long time since Wisconsin has been a normal place. Gableman’s work assures that it will be longer still until our politics is again normal.

Tonight’s Sky for March: 

Daily Bread, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government

Daily Bread for 3.1.22: In Mount Pleasant, Village Representatives Vote to Extend Their Own Terms

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43.  Sunrise is 6:28 AM and sunset 5:45 PM for 11h 16m 24s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 1.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 6:15 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.

Having gambled and lost on Foxconn, village trustees in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin have voted to extend their own terms of office. Corrine Hess reports As Foxconn fails, Mt. Pleasant board votes to extend their term lengths:

As Foxconn continues to flounder in the Village of Mount Pleasant, village board members have voted to lengthen their terms in office.

The board voted on Jan. 24 to extend their terms from two to three years, beginning in 2023.

According to the ordinance, this is being done “in the best interest of the Village’s health, safety, welfare, and morals.”

But residents aren’t happy. Within two weeks of the decision, more than 1,200 people signed a petition that will force a referendum, superseding the Jan. 24 vote.

Only 981 signatures were needed; that’s 7 percent of the number of Mt. Pleasant residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

Kelly Gallaher, who heads watchdog group A Better Mount Pleasant, led the signature drive.

“I’ve knocked on a lot of doors in my life — this was by far the easiest door I’ve ever knocked in the last decade,” Gallaher said. “I think the most remarkable thing is we are in a time of enormous political divisiveness. Mt. Pleasant residents are in complete agreement that the village board overreached and acted arrogantly.”

Mt. Pleasant board members and staff did not return requests for comment Monday.

The bad bet on Foxconn has saddled this village with millions in debt.  See Mount Pleasant sinking under the weight of Foxconn and Mount Pleasant to pay $3.5M for water Foxconn didn’t use in 2021.

In a free society, government is meant to be limited (to specified tasks) and responsible (to the people in whom sovereignty rests and is conferred). Meant to be and is aren’t always and forever the same.  And so, and so, the Village of Mount Pleasant trustees place themselves further from the accountability of their residents.

Not all Russians want war; Russia’s dictator wants war. See a video (with English subtitles) from those in Russia who want a better future for their people:

Daily Bread, Economy, Putin, Ukraine

Daily Bread for 2.28.22: Free Markets Bring Prosperity and Peace, but Putin Chooses War and Poverty

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 44.  Sunrise is 6:30 AM and sunset 5:43 PM for 11h 13m 31s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 6.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM, and the Whitewater School Board goes into closed session at 6 PM, and returns to open session at 7 PM.

On this day in 1997, GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.

The tragedy in Ukraine is that Russian soldiers are killing and displacing innocent people. The blame lies solely with the Russian regime: they chose this war, this killing, and this destruction.

Sympathy lies with those deserving sympathy, so to speak.

And yet, in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union, ordinary Russians have enjoyed a standard of living that they could not have imagined under the Soviets. Putin brings death and destruction to Ukraine, but also poverty to his own people, all in the name of Slavic brotherhood. (Putin’s brotherhood is no better than the relationship of Cain to Abel.)

Anton Troianovski reports The ruble crashes, the stock market closes and Russia’s economy staggers under sanctions:

MOSCOW — The ruble cratered, the stock market froze and the public rushed to withdraw cash on Monday as Western sanctions kicked in and Russia awoke to uncertainty and fear over the rapidly spreading repercussions of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the day began, Russia’s currency lost as much as a quarter of its value within hours. Scrambling to stem the decline, the Russian Central Bank more than doubled its key interest rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities and ordered exporters to convert into rubles most of their foreign-currency revenues. It closed the Moscow stock exchange for the day because of the “developing situation.”

“The economic reality has, of course, changed,” the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters, announcing that Mr. Putin had called an emergency meeting with his top finance officials.

….

And with dozens of countries closing their airspace to Russian planes, major foreign investors pulling out and the West placing debilitating restrictions on Russia’s biggest banks, it was becoming clear that Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was ushering in a period of international isolation for Russia unseen since the Cold War.

“So, has Russia become Venezuela or is it still Iran?” the morning-show host on the liberal-leaning Echo of Moscow radio station asked an economist on Monday.

“We’ll go through the Iran phase,” Yevgeny S. Gontmakher of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics responded, referring to sanctions placed on Iran because of its plans for uranium enrichment, “but what happens after that is hard to say.”

Russia now experiences ‘the Iran phase’ because it has violated international law murderously.  What many ordinary Russians accumulated since the fall of communism will now be lost; they have their rulers to blame.

These ordinary Russians might have enjoyed lives like those of Italians, Spaniards, or Germans, in peaceful commerce with Europe and the world beyond.

Not now.

Putin, of course, has already stolen billions from his people. Now they’ll lose even what he left for them.

See what Putin stole from his people in PUTIN’S PALACE (full length with subtitles in English):

Daily Bread, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Foreign Affairs, Putin, Sen. Ron Johnson, Ukraine, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.27.22: Ronald Harold, Donald John, and Vladimir Vladimirovich

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 37.  Sunrise is 6:32 AM and sunset 5:42 PM for 11h 10m 39s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 11.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1904, Wisconsin’s second state capitol burns:

On this date fire destroyed the second State Capitol building in Madison. On the evening of the 26th, the generator was turned off for the night. The only lights visible were two gas jets serving the night watchman. At approximately 2 a.m., night watchman Nat Crampton smelled smoke and followed the odor to a recently varnished ceiling, already in flames. A second watchman arrived to assist, but there was no water pressure with which to operate a hose. The fire department encountered a similar situation upon arrival. Governor Robert M. La Follette telegraphed fire departments in Janesville and Milwaukee for assistance. La Follette was at the capitol, directing efforts to douse the fire and entering the burning building to retrieve valuable papers. The fire was completely extinguished by 10 p.m. the next day. Losses were estimated to be close to $1 million.

Mark Jacob, former editor at the Chicago Tribune & Chicago Sun-Times, offers a reminder about Ronald Harold Johnson:

People gather around the world to show solidarity with Ukraine:

Daily Bread, Foreign Affairs, Putin, Ukraine

Daily Bread for 2.26.22: Ukrainian Civilians Defend Their Country from Putin’s Army

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 33.  Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset 5:41 PM for 11h 07m 47s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 21.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1815, Napoleon escapes from Elba.



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Here in America, Bob Sampson states the stark truth about our own country’s disordered domestic situation: “All those politicians who send out Christmas cards with their children holding guns would be the first to flee from a real combat situation.”

Searching for supernovas:

Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Employment, Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.23.22: Ron Johnson’s Lazy Job on Jobs

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 22.  Sunrise is 6:38 AM and sunset 5:37 PM for 10h 59m 15s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 54% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Park Board meets at 5:30 PM, and the city’s Community Involvement Commission meets at 6:30 PM.

 This day in 1455 is traditionally assigned as the date of publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.

 Kristin Brey asks What’s going on with Ron Johnson and jobs?:

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Johnson once fancied himself something of a libertarian (he understood little of libertarianism then, to be sure), and perhaps he thinks that he’s returning to his imagined, prior position.

Too late: years of crackpottery on issue after issue, and silence in the face of ludicrous Wisconsin fiscal policy (Foxconn) leaves Johnson with less credibility than someone on a park bench going on about the time machine he’s invented.

Johnson analyzes this issue poorly; the proper assessment is whether additional jobs truly produced would be worth any public money spent. I’d be inclined to say not, absent a strong showing otherwise. Johnson, however, undertakes no balancing at all — he simply thinks the mere existence of workers in other jobs (any jobs) means no cost-benefit assessment is necessary. That’s intellectually lazy — one should hear out advocates of public support and then consider the quality of their analysis.  (I’m a free market man, but I’d still patiently consider the quality of analysis in a proposal.) That’s where Foxconn fell flat — it reeked of flimsiness and grandiosity from the get-go (and it was flimsy and grandiose, after all).

Brey’s probably right on her third point, tellingly: follow Johnson’s big donor money to see who works him like a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Trump needs money (but of course he does):

America, City, Culture, Daily Bread, Nativism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.22.22: The Answer to the Nativists in Whitewater Comes from… Kenya

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be icy with a high of 31.  Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 5:36 PM for 10h 56m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 64.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1922, ice storms wreak havoc in Wisconsin:

Unprecedented freezing rain and snow assaulted the Midwest February 21-23, 1922. In Wisconsin the central and southern parts of the state were most severely affected, with the counties between Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan south to Racine being hardest hit. Ice coated trees and power lines, bringing them down and cutting off electricity, telephone and telegraph services. Cities were isolated, roads were impassible, rivers rose, streets and basements flooded, and train service stopped or slowed. Near Little Chute a passenger train went off the rails, injuring several crew members. Appleton housed 150 stranded traveling salesmen, near Plymouth a sheet of river ice 35 feet long and nearly three feet thick washed onto the riverbank, while in Sheboygan police rescued a flock of chickens and ducks from their flooded coop and a sick woman from her flooded home. Icy streets caused numerous automobile accidents, but the only reported deaths were a team of horses in Appleton that was electrocuted by a fallen power line.

 In this beautiful city there are some who wrongly advance a nativist vision for Whitewater, for Wisconsin, and for America.  This ilk espouses an American version of a Blood and Soil policy (Blut und Boden) for this country. There has never been, and never will be, a person among this faction who is not wrong in principle and disgusting in action.

An answer to this faction can be found in the remarks of Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Martin Kimani:

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Fly around SpaceX Starship during destacking in drone footage:

City, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.21.22: At Last, a Hero for the Whitewater’s Development Men

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 40.  Sunrise is 6:41 AM and sunset 5:35 PM for 10h 53m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1808, without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e., Finland) to Russia. 

  There are three types of conservatives in Whitewater: traditional ones (who faved faded as a group into inconsequence), transactional conservatives (development men — dealmaking types), and the conservative populists (MAGA men).  As the traditional conservatives now count for little in Whitewater, the question for the rightwing is whether local conservativism will be dominated by little Mitch McConnells or little Donald Trumps.

While Trump inspires the MAGA types, the transactional conservatives have no similar hero (as McConnell inspires no one).

The transactionalists need wait no longer: Golfer Phil Mickelson is the man for whom they’ve been waiting. In an interview from late last year (only now gaining widespread publicity), Mickleson declares his desire to make a deal with the Saudis for a golf league of their own.

Alan Shipnuck writes

Mickelson told me [Shipnuck] he had enlisted three other “top players” he declined to name and that they paid for attorneys to write the SGL’s [Super Golf League’s] operating agreement, codifying that the players would have control of all the details. He didn’t pretend to be excited about hitching his fortunes to Saudi Arabia, admitting the SGL was nothing more than what he called “sportswashing” by a brutally repressive regime. “They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with,” he said. “We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.

In Mickelson’s view, influencing the PGA, and making bank if you can, is worth it all.

(It’s worth noting, contra the development men, that Adam Smith wrote both Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments, and meant both to be understood together; indeed, they are properly read as one teaching. See An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, edited with an Introduction, Notes, Marginal Summary and an Enlarged Index by Edwin Cannan (London: Methuen, 1904). 2 vols. and Smith, Adam. Theory of Moral Sentiments and Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1869). Alex Murray & Son, 1869.)

Ah, but forget about all those old books for a moment — rejoice that these gentlemen now have their hero.

Biker narrowly avoids being hit by train in northern India: