Only a Man Would Come Up With That Idea

One of the assumptions that you hear during some debates is that "If women ran the world, there would be no wars, no starvation, schools would be better and the environment would be cleaner".  The argument being that women are more collaborative and less driven by the need to prove that they are better than each other like men often do.

That came to mind when I read about the Netflix documentary about the "Mercury 13".  If you are not familiar, the "Mercury 13" was a privately-funded project that sought to train 13-women to fly into space in the late 1950's--should NASA decide that it wanted to have female astronauts as part of the Mercury program.  Of course, the "mean men" at NASA put the kibosh on the idea--even after the Soviets put a women into space in 1963.  But the documentary got me thinking "What if the gender roles had been reversed--and it was women running government at the time of the Space Race?"

Make no mistake, as much as we Americans like to talk about our "spirit of adventure" and "man's innate sense of exploration", the reason the US put such a high priority on space travel in the 1950's and the 1960's is because the guys in the Soviet Union were beating us--and we couldn't handle being "number two".  You know why we haven't gone to Mars--even though it was in NASA's long-range plans in the 1960's?  Because no other guys are trying to do it--so we don't have to worry about not being first.

But imagine if women were running the show in the 50's and 60's and someone from the military or science fields had said "I think we should spend the modern equivalent of 200-billion dollars over the next decade to send 12-people to the moon.  And we should do it using giant machines made up of parts that are going to fall into the ocean, drift around in space forever, and get left on the moon itself so that none of it can ever be used again.  Oh, and on some of the missions we are going to send a car along so we can drive on the moon--and then leave the car up there.  What do you think?"

What woman that you know would sign off on that plan?  Instead, they would likely give you the laundry list of things that need to get done around your own place before you think about going off to some other world to "explore" or "colonize".  "If you get the oceans cleaned up and there is still some time and money left over, then you can think about going to the moon."

Instead, you had Eisenhower and Kennedy with their testosterone-filled plans for "winning the race to space" that got everybody gung-ho about putting men into orbit and eventually driving around on the moon--no matter how little "sense" that makes.

Questionable Timing

As someone who assists in the stewardship of public resources by keeping an eye on how government entities function, there is a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing two former administrators at UW-Oshkosh criminally charged with misconduct in officer for illegally binding taxpayers to debts accrued by a private entity and making secret payments to cover up that activity.  But there is something in the timing of the criminal charges against former Chancellor Richard Wells and former Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner that doesn't quite pass the smell test.

First, there is no doubt that Wells, Sonnleitner and Foundation personnel conspired to defraud the UW System.  If administrators were allowed to give banks assurances that the schools would repay debts accrued by their foundations, Wells and Sonnleitner would have told UW System officials they were doing that for several projects funded by the foundation around town.  And if the University was allowed to fund the Foundation, they would have made those payments clear in accounting records--instead of using bookkeeping tricks hide the transfers.

But the legal procedure used to right this wrong has been backwards from the start.  It has made no sense to file a civil lawsuit against the administrators--especially since they would never be able to repay the 11-million dollars that was improperly transferred to the Foundation.  And by going the civil suit route, it appeared the State was initially saying that there was no grounds for criminal charges.  I'm sure the UW System was also more than happy to avoid criminal charges, as it just makes for more bad publicity--especially when they for years have been saying there's "no money to put into classrooms"--yet their leaders in Oshkosh come up with 11-MILLION to funnel into questionable building projects.

But then the UWO Foundation decided to go bankrupt--and is trying to stick the UW System--but more correctly, taxpayers--with the bill for their irresponsible borrowing.  And after a federal judge tossed out the State's argument that Wells and Sonnleitner were acting outside of their authority in creating the financial mess--it appeared that we the taxpayers are going to get stuck with the bill.  And that is why I believe the Department of Justice has decided to file criminal charges against the two.

If the issue of who must repay the bad loans goes to a jury trial, the defense for the Foundation can use plenty of legal arguments to sway a jury that Wells and Sonnleitner--while not acting in the best of faith--weren't doing anything "illegal" in guaranteeing loans and secretly helping to make payments.  But criminal convictions against the two could carry a lot of weight in the minds of those who might be asked to determine who really is to blame for this mess--and who should be made to foot the bill.

Undoubtedly, the charges against the former administrators will be reduced to misdemeanors and nobody will be spending any time behind bars.  But it remains to be seen if real justice--the Foundation being made to repay its own debts--and not the taxpayers of Wisconsin who had nothing to do with the swindle that created this fiasco--will come to pass.

The "Other" Event City

It turns out the city of Oshkosh is not the only one in Wisconsin dealing with being the "Too Many Events City".  An article in yesterday's edition of the Capital Times details how the city of Madison is being overwhelmed with demand for services, street closures and park takeovers on a scale even worse than what Oshkosh is dealing with.

The paper cites an astounding 384 events that will force the closure of streets or restrict access to public parks in 2018 alone.  Add to that Madison's penchant for protests, rallies and marches--which the city does not require permits for in order to adhere to the First Amendment--and you almost daily occurrences of needing to block off streets, provide police security and re-route public transportation.

Madison has so many event requests they have had to form a special committee just to review special event permits.  And city staff are assigned to coordinating all of that activity--much like the hiring of the Special Events Coordinator here in Oshkosh--funded by the permit fees that the city looks to raise every year. 

Part of the problem in Madison is that each neighborhood thinks it has to have its own "Festival"--each with street concerts and food vendors and pretentious wine tents.  And since we need to create as many divisions between ourselves as possible nowadays, there are a lot of "neighborhoods" that those living there probably didn't even know existed.

Festival fatigue in Madison is also taking on a "socio-economic" angle.  The city's Racial Justice committee is among those fed up all the events because bus routes are detoured on a weekly basis for much of the year.  Precious on-street parking for locals is taken up by festival attendees.  And free public parks are taken over on multiple weekends, limiting access.  It's ironic that in "celebrating diversity", the upscale white folks from the suburbs do nothing more than inconvenience the minorities they are trying to "celebrate".

Just like in Oshkosh, the real cost of "event mania" is on city services--as overtime in the Madison Police Department has increased by 50% in just the past two years.  The Police Chief is calling for a sharp reduction in the number of festivals and special events--or at least a moratorium on new permits.  But as more letters are added to the LGBTQ alphabet--and more "social injustices" demand protest and "awareness rallies"--the likelihood of that happening is remote.

Maybe we should get back to the days where we'd have a few friends over for a backyard barbecue on a Saturday afternoon--instead of thinking we need to invite 5,000 people over to enjoy bad reggae cover bands and questionable food truck edibles.

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

The police and fire scanner in our Newsroom is an integral tool for the job we do--allowing us to monitor emergency situations throughout the listening area.  Owning a scanner used to be a rarity.  There were always a few people around town that might purchase one for their homes or have one of those old school multi-band radios that would allow you to tune in one of the emergency frequencies like you tune in your favorite music station.  But the internet has brought websites and smart-phone apps that stream scanner feeds for free--and almost anyone can monitor police and fire calls in their homes, at work and even in the car.

But not everyone grasps the nuances of live police and fire dispatch activity.  And that was borne out this week as rumors of a school shooting here in Oshkosh spread like wildfire on the internet.  Oshkosh Police, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department and our newsroom were receiving calls from people that "heard" police were dealing with a shooting at a bank on Emmers Lane and that the gunman was at Oakwood School.  Posts to that effect were shared on social media pages--including some that monitor scanners and post what people hear in real time. 

Mixed in with the angry responses about guns and the "thoughts and prayers" posts were a few level-headed comments about how nothing about this was being broadcast on local media outlets.  As you might expect, hearing a call about a shooting at a school or a bank would certainly warrant immediate coverage not just by those of us at WOSH but most of the Green Bay television stations--which also monitor scanner activity throughout the Fox Valley.  But the big difference between those of us in the "traditional media"--and those who think they "break news" in the "new media" (or "citizen journalists") is that we go out to make sure something is actually going on.

And that was the case on Monday afternoon--as my reporter Morgan Schultz, after getting calls from people saying they "heard it on the scanner", called me to take a quick run out to the "scene of the crime" to confirm what those people thought they heard.  As it turned out, it was a normal day in the Oakwood neighborhood.  Further "scanner traffic" about the "shooting" came across on the Training Frequency used by Winnebago County law enforcement and emergency personnel for just such a situation.  But if you are listening on a scanner app--or reading posts on a Facebook page--you likely wouldn't know that.  And yet, rumors continued for so long that Oshkosh Police finally had to issue a press release on their own social media sites reminding everyone that it was a training exercise taking place up at FVTC in Appleton--not even in Oshkosh.

If you are a scanner afficianado, take some advice from a long-time professional listener: people who report things to police get it wrong--a lot.  In my time here, I've criss-crossed parts of Winnebago County looking for the "plane that the caller believed crashed in a field by their house" during EAA.  Or waited for dive teams to be dispatched to spots on the ice that the "caller thinks a car went through because the lights disappeared".  And I've talked to plenty of officers responding to "shots fired" that turned out to be fireworks.

The next time you see on the internet a post about something heard on the scanner, consider if the person providing that information left their house to confirm that--and if they plan to issue a "correction" when it turns out to be a misunderstanding.

Weapon of Choice

I would like to credit the Canadian people for their thoughtful and measured response to yesterday's mass killing in downtown Toronto.  Ten people died, another fifteen people were injured in this latest incident--but few, if any, chose to focus on the weapon used in the attack.  It would have been easy to do, given that the same weapon was used in an attack that killed three in Germany earlier this month, and had been used against anti-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Eight people died in a similar attack in New York City last October.  Fourteen died and 100 were injured in Barcelona, Spain in August of last year.  A dozen people died in separate attacks like this one in London on the same day in June of last year.  Twelve were killed--another 50-injured in a similar attack in Berlin, Germany in December of 2016 and who can forget the 86-killed and hundreds hurt in the same way in Nice, France in June of 2016.

It would have been very easy for Canadians to call for immediate bans of the weapon used in Monday's attack given its track record.  But instead, they chose to focus on the man responsible for wielding that weapon in such a dangerous way.  Nobody blamed the opposition party in Parliament for "not doing enough" to stop such attacks.  Toronto police weren't taken to task to failing to "enforce the laws already on the books to prevent such attacks from happening" with that weapon.  Canadian school children stayed in class yesterday--and likely will again today--and will not take to the streets to call for their ability to use the same weapons to be taken away from them--and anyone else that happens to own one.  And they did not point out that yesterday's weapon is by far the most likely way they are going to die as a teenager.

No advocacy groups for the use of yesterday's weapons were branded "terrorist organizations".  The manufacturer of the weapon is not going to be sued by the family members of the victims.  The business that sold the weapon will not be vilified   Nobody is calling for incredibly expensive infrastructure in every Canadian city to "make sure this can never happen again".  I haven't seen anyone question why someone would even need a weapon of that style or size--when smaller, less-dangerous models are fine.

Of course, much of that is due to the fact that the weapon used in the Toronto attack--and all of the ones I listed previously--is a motor vehicle.  A rental van to be exact--like was used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and was used by the first World Trade Center attackers. 

More Americans die due to motor vehicle use than firearms every year.  Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers.  More people are injured by vehicles every year than are injured by guns--even though there are more guns in the US than there are motor vehicles--by an estimated 50-million.  Now, they are more commonly being used for mass killings--especially in places that have taken great steps to limit all access to firearms.  And yet, no one in Canada or here in America will make a single suggestion to protect us from vehicles.  Perhaps it is because we have learned to accept the inherent risk in having motor vehicles in our society--even if very bad people use them to harm us--or very good people make mistakes in handling them.

That's a Bad Look

At first, I thought it was some kind of a joke.  LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers showed up for game three of their playoff series with the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis Friday night with identical gray suits.  Identical all the way down to the pants legs failing to come to the top of the shoes.

In LeBron's case, the pants were a good four or five inches short--allowing you to see pretty much all of his dress socks.  What made it look even worse, was that he was wearing some kind of high-top boot--and the pants still weren't long enough.  So I figured that it was some kind of inside joke that would make the players and coaching staff laugh and relaxed for Friday night's game (which the Cavs still lost).

But then, my wife and I attended a "gala event" in Madison at Monona Terrace on Saturday night and what did I see but young guys wearing suits that also did not come to the top of their shoes.  They decided to "accent" this ludicrous look by wearing bright colored socks so that the pants length deficiency really stood out.

This is apparently the "new look"--looking like you don't know how to buy clothes that fit properly.  It was also at the "gala event" that I noticed that the suit jackets were way too short.  Gone is the cut that allowed you to just curl your fingers under the bottom of the coat.  The new "hip" style is to have the coat barely go past your waist--so that your butt sticks out of the bottom.  Add to that sleeves that don't even come to your wrist and you have the look of someone that is wearing his younger brother's suit because he doesn't have one.

The incredible "shrinking" of men's fashion actually started awhile ago with something called the "slim fit".  It played off of "skinny jeans" for women that somewhere, men decided would look good on them too.  But when you have actual thigh muscles, "slim fit" makes you feel like you are wearing compression tights instead of dress pants.  There is also the matter of "leaving nothing to the imagination" in another anatomical area that I won't get into much detail in this forum.

Hopefully, the "short suit" as I've taken to call it will be as much of a fad as the leisure suit and bell-bottoms were during the fashion disaster that was the 1970's and we can get back to looking like there isn't a world-wide fabric shortage going on that prevents tailors from using enough cloth to properly dress guys.

Baby On Board Everywhere

"History" was made yesterday as Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth brought her ten-day old infant daughter to the floor of the Senate to cast a vote.  Senate rules had to be amended for the occasion--as until now, children were barred from a place where representatives of the people vote on the most-important matters facing our nation.  Now, the place where Republican Senator Charles Sumner castigated Democrat Stephen Douglas over the immorality of slavery--and where Democrat Robert Byrd conducted a one-man, 14-hour filibuster of the Civil Rights Act is no different that the PlayLand at your local McDonald's.

Liberal women's groups would tell you that bans on children in the workplace are archaic attempts to keep females out of the workforce or to prevent them from advancing within the corporate structure.  But men too are bringing kids places they--plain and simple--don't belong.  Upscale restaurants, movie theaters, bars, theme parks--no longer do parents ask themselves "Does a baby (or a child of any age) really belong here?"

When a male Senator asked what if there are ten babies on the floor of the Senate someday--Senator Amy Klobuchur of Minnesota said "that would be wonderful".  Really?  Ten babies throwing a fit while the Senate is trying to debate something like gun control, or environmental policy would be "wonderful"?  Or would debate have to be stopped while the children are comforted or lulled back to sleep?

If anything, babies and kids in the Senate will become nothing more than props for the cameras of C-SPAN or the news channels.  "I have brought my three-year old grandson here today so that he can say he was here when the Senate passed this historic measure".  Or conversely, "If you vote for this bill you are ensuring that my 3-week old daughter will die a horrible death" will become "human talking points" for the theater that is modern politics.

Senator Duckworth has (for now) promised to spare her fellow lawmakers from dirty diaper changes inside the Chamber (which, when you think about it, would have actually been a fitting metaphor for modern politics).  If I was in the Senate, I would move to amend the rules to allow the use of noise-cancelling headphones--as those were invented for the sole purpose of drowning out the sound of crying babies and children that business travelers have had to put up with on airplanes.

Smaller Event City

For years now we've been telling you about the strain being "Wisconsin's Event City" has been putting on the city of Oshkosh.  Huge amounts of overtime for police and fire personnel, the inability to take vacations for city employees, wear and tear on equipment, and general fatigue on those of us who live here and who have to put up with extra traffic on the streets, in stores and at restaurants.  It's why we have the controversial Special Event Permit Fee and why the City had to hire someone exclusively to co-ordinate city services for events.

But it looks like the market itself is going to start providing some relief.  Starting next year, Country USA will drop two days of its festival and feature only three nights of music.  That means two fewer days of backup along Interstate 41 as trucks and campers try to get onto the grounds.  That means two fewer days of needing 20-cops to direct traffic at the South Park interchanges.  It also means two fewer days of muddy pickup trucks filling up the fast-food drive-thrus.

The reduction of Country USA comes after the same promoters cut back on the length of Rock USA at the same site a couple of years ago.  While those who attend those events like to think that they are hard-core partiers--five days is a really long time to be drunk all of the time.  And the promoters recognize that it's hard to keep staff productive for that long and to control costs.  The folks at Waterfest realized that you don't need to have a concert every Thursday night to be successful.  And it has allowed them greater flexibility in booking better musical acts the past few years.

I hope that some other events here in Oshkosh look at Country and Rock USA--along with Waterfest and scale back their runs too.  Especially Sawdust Days--who continue to believe that we need a five day 4th of July celebration--when the 4th itself is really all that people care about.  Maybe the folks at EAA could consider tightening up their schedule--as the final Sunday often feels like the last few miles of a death march--with little excitement and relatively few attendees.  Remember, the Fly-In used to NINE DAYS over TWO WEEKENDS and I think that everyone involved would admit it's a much better event without those extra two days.  A Wednesday to Saturday action-packed run would seem to me to be a better fit now.

If current trends hold, Oshkosh will still be "Wisconsin's Event City"--but it will also be the "Smaller Event City".  And that means the men and women of our police and fire departments can take summer vacations again--and the Farmers Market won't have to buy their own barricades to stay in business.

Coming Full Circle

There is a certain irony in the national trend of converting former big box retailers and department store buildings into storage units.  There are companies that now specialize in converting what used to be retail space into individual and business storage.  One such company is currently working to convert the former K-Mart/Sears store here in Oshkosh into such a facility for U-Haul.

When you think about it, that business model really represents the full circle of American consumerism.  Items purchased from now-defunct retailers are literally going back to the buildings where they were boughtto be put back on the same floor--because we don't have room for all of our "stuff" in our homes.

There may be more of that space opening up soon at the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute.  Younker's will be closing due to the bankruptcy of its parent company, Bon-Ton.  Sears is in its death throes.  And JC Penney may not be far behind them--all victims of changing American spending habits--with on-line retail beating out brick and mortar storefronts.  We may live to see that day that the mall becomes the largest storage center in the Fox Valley.

But I have an billion dollar idea for those soon-to-be-empty anchor stores: Vanity Storage.  Rather than hide your stuff behind a cheap corrugated steel door, show off your items in bulletproof and shatter-proof glass-encased displays for everyone to see.  You bought most of this "stuff" to be cool and appear hip and to impress other people--now you still can!  Vanity Storage will provide mannequins in your size that can wear the cute dress you got for your cousin's wedding--and never wore again.  And all of the pants and shirts that used to fit--until you gained 40-pounds spending every day on the couch playing video games.

In the former furniture departments we can sell multiple adjoining cubes to show off the living room set you bought when Hildy got them for a house on the original Trading Spaces, which you replaced with the furniture that the Property Brothers put in that one house, which was replaced by the reclaimed retro items that Joanna and Chip bought for that one couple on Fixer Upper, which is about to be replaced by what Hildy just bought on the new Trading Spaces.  It would be like an evolutionary display of what your house used to look like.

We would have spaces for the Espresso machine, the rice cooker, the vegetable steamer, the instant pot, French press and pannini grill that you bought because you were going to "learn how to cook"--but ended up ordering take out instead.  Those could be paired with the stainless steel appliances you got--that were replaced a few years later by the black stainless steel that go better with the granite countertops in the "Dream Kitchen" displays.

We could even find space for all of the "classic cars" that you guys bought with every intention of fixing up into show-worthy rolling pieces of art--but that proved to be way too difficult to repair and maintain. 

Vanity Storage could be a huge boost to the retail segment--as people see what other people have stored in their cubicles--and want to have better and more "stuff" in theirs.  Or, retailers themselves could include that as part of their current business models--selling you an item and allowing you to come back a few days, weeks or months later to put it back on display in your cubicle.  They could call it "reverse layaway".  Is there some way I can get a patent, a copyright or a trademark on this idea?

Walk This Way

If you tune into the Milwaukee Bucks-Boston Celtics playoff game tonight, I want you to check out how may times Giannis Antetokounmpo commits a traveling violation.  I don't mean how many times he is called for traveling--because that number will likely be zero--but the actual number of times he takes far more than the two steps allowed by the rules of basketball.

For decades, traveling has been a joke in the NBA.  But it was usually a guy taking one extra step on the way to the basket on a layup.  Now, "fancy footwork" dominates the sport.  Star players especially are being allowed to pick up the basketball and take as many steps as are necessary to shake free of their defender.  In game one, I noticed that Giannis has already mastered all three phases of the Traveling Trifecta.  On a couple of plays in the lane, he pivoted on both feet--which is one of the easiest traveling calls to make.  Giannis also takes the double-backstep to set up a fade away jumper--which is also a pretty easy traveling call.  And of course, he uses the "Euro-step" in every attack to the basket.

As an official, I consider the Euro-step to be the scourge of basketball.  For some reason, the powers that be have decided to allow offensive players to pick up their dribble, take one huge-step in one-direction and then jump onto their other foot in the opposite direction to get around a defender (who likely knows that the player with the ball just traveled by resetting what had been his pivot foot).  The Euro-step is a go-to move for players at all levels now--including sixth-grade traveling teams, where kids pick up the ball at the 3-point-line and think they can make it all the way to the rim without having to dribble again. 

In fairness to Giannis, he is not the worst traveler in the NBA.  Check out the video footage of walking that LeBron James is allowed to get away with--including pivoting on both feet twice to gain about ten feet of space on the court.  But they have nothing on the Houston Rockets' James Harden--who can fill hours of highlight reels with flagrant traveling violations that never, ever get called.  In their game one against Minnesota, Harden hit the biggest shot of the game after picking up his dribble--taking two steps forward, then two steps backward, before jumping back behind the 3-point line to nail the jumper.  The TV announcers pointed out that it was clearly a traveling violation--but then laughed that off.

If the NBA is going to make dribbling "optional" we may as well retitle the sport "European Team Handball" and let guys pick it up and run with it for as far as they want--or Aussie Rules Football, where dribbling is required only every 18-feet.

Sneaking Suspicions

We hear from law enforcement all the time, "If you see something, say something".  But what do you do when saying what you have seen can be considered "culturally insensitive"?

Living and working just off of Witzel Avenue, I've driven past the "health spa" that was busted for alleged prostitution last week.  I always found it a bit odd that the place was open at 8:00 on a Sunday night--but I wouldn't have called the cops about that.  What was really suspicious is that I would see different Asian women walking back and forth from the business and the house right behind it on Witzel.  What business has all of its employees living right next door?

You may have heard me ask Oshkosh Police Public Information Officer Kate Mann about this case last Friday--and whether I should have called them with my suspicions that were going on with the women in the house next door.  She said that I probably didn't have to call about that--but that they welcome all calls about suspicious behavior. 

But that raises the question of what is "suspicious"--and what role does race play in it?  If you listen to any of the police scanner apps you hear the occasional dispatch call of "Caller reports three young black men in the neighborhood and they want it checked out".  It's not often you hear "Caller reports three white men in the neighborhood and they want it checked out".  My wife goes to a masseuse here in Oshkosh--but I don't assume that there is more than just massage going on in her office.  So why did I almost immediately have my assumptions about the place on Witzel?  Let's say I--or someone else who had noticed things--had called police and their investigation reveals it was just a close-knit Asian family running the place and that everything going on there was legit.  The white person complaining about it would look pretty foolish wouldn't they?

We don't have a criminal complaint filed yet against the two people arrested in connection with the raid--so details on what led to the police investigation are not yet known.  But word that the Department of Homeland Security was also involved leads me to believe that there was concern about more than just "happy endings" going on in that "health spa".  That place has been open for a couple of years now, how many women may have been doing things in there that they really did not want to do--for money or otherwise--because those of us who "saw things" but didn't "say something" thought it was best to mind their own business? 

The Big Yawn

You know too many teams make the playoffs in your sport when fans don't even get excited about a post-season appearance.  Exhibit A for that in the NBA are the Milwaukee Bucks.  There is ZERO buzz about the Bucks upcoming series with the Boston Celtics--which tips off on Sunday afternoon.  I'll grant you, it's more important to start breaking down the Packers' draft strategy everyday--more than two weeks before the draft--but sports-talk radio in Wisconsin is having a hard time drumming up any interest.

Perhaps it's due to the way the Bucks played down the stretch--looking lethargic and uninspired.  Thanks to the weak composition of the Eastern Conference, it was almost a given from December that Milwaukee was going to make the playoffs, so it seemed like the players decided to put in just enough effort to win just enough games to clinch a spot and then coast home.  The last couple of weeks were a joke in the East, as teams at the bottom of the playoff field did all they could to avoid having to play LeBron James and Cleveland in the first round.  The only team that didn't tank was Philadelphia--which finished the regular season on a 16-game winning streak and avoided the Cavaliers in the first two rounds by finishing ahead of them in the conference standings.

The belief heading into this Bucks season was that this was going to be another building block toward becoming a legitimate title contender.  Instead, the team meandered its way through the regular season--playing inspired ball for a couple of weeks after Jason Kidd was fired as head coach--but then falling back into their usual inconsistent effort and disinterest on most nights.  Yes, there were injuries to key players like Malcolm Brogdon and Matthew Delavadova--but those two would have little effect on Milwaukee's poor defense and rebounding--which are based on effort.

The Bucks will get a free pass from the fans next year, who will flock to the new (as yet unnamed) downtown arena just to check out the fancy new digs, but after that they are going to start expecting some results--especially if they make Giannis Antetokounmpo the highest paid player in the league. Surrounding him with marginal talent and second rate coaching--as they have done so far--won't fill the new place once the novelty wears off.

Maybe the Bucks think they are suddenly going to "turn it on" for the playoffs and seriously challenge Cleveland for the conference title.  Maybe they think the injury-depleted Celtics are the perfect first round match up and they can pull off the upset.  Maybe they hope the return of Brogdon and Dellavadova will magically cure their ills.  But more than likely, they are heading for another first round playoff exit--with few people shedding tears over that loss.

Now What?

For real Conservatives, the hits just keep on coming.  House Speaker Paul Ryan's announcement that he will not seek re-election this fall is another blow to the hope that perhaps the founding principals of the Republican Party will be upheld during the Trump presidency.  But now there will be one less voice to say "This is not who we are" after the next Twitter storm, malaprop, unsubstantiated accusation, flippant threat and out-of-left field proposal that comes from the Oval Office.

At this point, I'm hoping for a complete and utter obliteration of the Republican majorities across all levels of government in both 2018 and 2020.  The party is in need of an extreme blood-letting in order to starve the leeches of the extreme right that have attached themselves to the "Party of Trump".  Maybe in 2022 the party can avoid running Holocaust deniers, guys arrested for blocking access to abortion clinics and white supremacy bloggers for major elected positions.

Paul Ryan "retires" at the age of 48--meaning a run for a much higher office in 2022 would come at the prime age of 54.  And by that time, Democrats will have angered pretty much everyone again in the majority of states that the Electoral College map will once again favor a Republican.  And that time, an actual Republican would be running.

But as Ryan goes on his self-imposed period wandering in the wilderness, who takes up the mantle for true Conservatism and the soul of the Republican party?  I'd direct your attention to Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse.  He was my write in selection for Vice President in 2016--teaming him up with Speaker Ryan in the "ticket that should have been"--and the administration that would have still accomplished the legislative victories of the past year--without the embarrassing rhetoric, independent counsel investigations, 60 Minutes porn star interviews and Twitter threats that bring the world to the edge of nuclear war.

Much like Ryan, Senator Sasse is a young, personable Conservative that knows the Constitution, values the rights of the individual, and believes strongly in a limited Government.  He has expressed embarrassment for the man that now heads up the party and has stated opposition to a number of President Trump's extreme positions--including a trade war with China.  With Speaker Ryan's departure from Washington, Sasse becomes the Conservative Luke Skywalker if you will--the last hope against the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Let's hope that he is able to hang on, until Paul Ryan decides it's time to bring real Republicanism back to Washington.

Pride of Place

I hate to use the term "logic" when it comes to anything President Trump does, but is it possible that what seems like the wild actions taken by the President could lead to beneficial results for the country? 

Take for instance the order to place National Guard Troops along the Mexican border. While it makes no sense from a tactical standpoint--just like building a giant wall--consider the psychological effect it could have on those in Mexico's government.  At some point, don't the Mexican people have to get embarrassed that their neighbor has to resort to such steps to stem the tide of residents fleeing their country?  Will this help them realize that drastic change is needed to provide them with a way to make a living in their own country?

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is a media darling because of his often profane insults hurled at President Trump about how Mexico will never pay for the wall.  But under Fox, the US saw the highest numbers of illegal immigrants enter the country from Mexico--and El Presidente was fine with that, saying at the time that if he tried to stop illegal immigration, his country would "be like Cuba".  It still can't be a ringing endorsement of your leadership when people can't wait to go through proper channels to get out of your country. 

What the US needs to do is send some of our leading "economic experts" to Mexico to help them provide more opportunities for their own people.  Bernie Sanders can head down there and help them establish astronomical tax rates on their corporations and wealthy residents for "residistribution" to those trying to sneak across the border.  Former President Obama can help Mexico pass laws requiring everyone have health insurance so they don't have to come to the US to pay for medical expenses anymore.  We could even send Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to some "sister cities" in Mexico to lay out streetcar routes that don't take people to anywhere they may want to go.  Of course, if illegal immigrants stayed in Mexico, those Democrats could never hope to someday have them as voters here in the US.

There is a reason why the United States has never seen a mass migration OUT of the country.  Even during our worst times (like the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl) people moved to different states or parts of the country--but few got onto boats and headed back to the "old country".  And I'm guessing that if millions tried to leave, our neighbors wouldn't be welcoming them with open arms.

The Expected Result of Sharing Too Much

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg goes before Congress today to "apologize" for allowing Russians to hijack his website and "influence the 2016 election" by targeting users for inflammatory or misleading stories.  I would much rather that he go in with a defiant attitude and place the "blame" for what happened at the feet of those who are ultimately at fault: his users.

When you have signed up for any social media site, shopping app, map site or messaging app have you ever fully read the terms of use agreement?  Nearly all of the popular apps and social media platforms warn you that your activities will be monitored, stored and can be provided to third parties willing to purchase it from them.  You really didn't think that Facebook and Twitter made enough money to stay in business from the ads that show up in your time line did you?  They are merely data services with some fun distractions to keep you coming back up front.

All of the data that was "misused" in 2016 was provided to President Obama's campaign in 2012.  The difference is that the Committee to Re-elect asked for it from Facebook through proper channels--while Cambridge Analytica got it through a third-party app that Facebook users voluntarily downloaded that gathered their information along with that of their friends and their friends' friends and so on and so on.  Did you get a notice from Facebook in 2012 that specific ads and "newslinks" were being posted on your feed to "influence" that election?  That's why if I'm Mark Zuckerberg, I'm up there today saying "read the fine print, suckers".

And then there is the idea that everyone believes everything that is posted on their Facebook feeds.  Again, Zuckerberg needs to point out that smallest amount of critical thinking--and additional fact-checking by his users--could have made the Russian misinformation campaign pointless.  Instead, we have becoming a society where anything we hear that bolsters our personal beliefs is true--and anything that challenges our thinking is "fake news".  The only fault that Facebook could bear is serving as another avenue for people to feed their own mistaken beliefs--but what form of media has't become that?

If he wasn't a flaming liberal that believes the Government should provide some form of false security for every citizen, I'd also expect Zuckerberg to defy Congressional calls for oversight of social media.  But it sounds like he is going to come before the committees begging Congress to "help protect his users" from becoming "victims" again.  But just when it comes to political advertising on his site--not the thousands of regular advertisers that bombard his users based upon the same information that he sells to them.  You know, Socialism is great only up to a certain point for the liberal elite.

These Are the Times That Try Men's Souls

Are you familiar with the anology of the "the duck"?  People dealing gracefully with chaotic or difficult situations are compared to the waterfowl because when you look at a duck gliding across the water it looks like a very calm and peaceful thing.  But under the surface, they are paddling away like crazy.  Well last week, WOSH Radio was a flock of ducks.  It may have sounded like just another five or six days on the air--but behind the scenes it was absolute chaos.

As you might expect, computers dominate what we do.  All of the audio you hear is put into a computer to be edited, processed and prepared for playback.  Well last week, none of our computers that do that worked.  In fact, it was "blue screen of death" time for all of them.  That left me to work in three different studios on four different computers to accomplish what I usually do on one in the Newsroom.

Then on Tuesday, we had an interruption in our cable TV service.  Normally that wouldn't be a big deal for a radio station--except, that is how we bring you Local Five News at Five as part of the WOSH Evening News Hour.  When it became clear that the issue would not be resolved by 5:00 that day, I had to go home and hook up an old stereo to the TV in my basement man cave and connect that to our remote broadcast equipment to get the TV feed back to the studio to put on the air.

And then on Thursday, the construction crew on Oregon Street severed the phone line that provides that service to our offices--meaning we could neither place nor receive calls.  That left us no choice but to do our Morning News Focus interviews and my live reports from the scene of the Oshkosh murder using cellphone speaker phones held up to our studio microphones.

The perfect capper was a weekend that saw one of our "rescue computers" also fail and you can see that last week was truly the worst week ever.  But I'm proud that if I hadn't told you that this morning, you likely would have had no idea--and that is a credit to the folks that I work with here at the Radio Ranch.

Of course, if this week is anything like last week, it may become somebody else's set of problems.

The Better Tiebreaker

Thanks to her dice-rolling skills, Stephanie Spellman will likely be the new Winnebago County Board Supervisor from the city of Neenah.  Spellman beat incumbent George Scherck in a "game of chance" to decide the winner of that race--after the two tied on Election Day.  It sort of gives new meaning to the term "shake of the day"--except in this case, Spellman gets to vote on a multi-million dollar budget every year and to place new restrictions on people--rather than getting a free shot.

While the game of chance route may be the most "fair" way to break an election tie, I would propose that we develop a method that actually rewards the "best" candidate for an office.  Rather than picking a card out of a deck, or drawing lots from a hat, or picking straws, or rolling dice, why not have a test to determine who knows the most about the job they are about to win.

The state Elecions Commission can come up with a secret quiz that includes key issues that a "good supervisor" should know: "To the nearest million, how large is the county budget?", "In what instances are a two-thirds majority of the board required to pass a measure?", "How many supervisors are required to form a quorum of the Board?".

I'd want that test expanded to a number of general government procedures and requirements as well--so let's include questions about Roberts Rules of Order, the powers granted by the both the state and US constitutions, and maybe a few asking about zero-based budgeting, property tax assessment and municipal bonding.  Might there be some advantage for an incumbent in using this test?  Maybe.  But if you've ever watched a Winnebago County Board meeting on public access TV, you would know that supervisors that have been on there for 30-years still don't know or understand a majority of the issues that I just suggested be on the test.

To make it even more fun, instead of having the tied candidates sit at desks and fill out Scantron sheets, we could put them through a Jeopardy-style head-to-head contest--with the top points-getter claiming the seat.  "I'll take 'Enumeration of Individual Rights" for 2000, Alex."

Let's allow the voters have their shot at electing the more-personable or more-persuasive candidate--but if they can't pick a winner, it wouldn't hurt to have the more-knowledgeable candidate get the seat--as opposed to the luckier of the two.

The Most Anticipated Ever

If there is one phrase that I think best captures modern life it's "Hype and disappointment".  Everything is promoted now as "the best", "the greatest" or "new and improved"--but when you buy it, see it, or hear it, your reaction is "meh".

And that is why I'm reluctant to get to pumped up about the start of this year's Master's Tournament.  Everything you see on Golf Channel, ESPN and the myriad of sports-related web content is promoting this as "THE MOST ANTICIPATED MASTERS EVER!!!!"  The "most anticipated" hype is coming from the fact that not only are the top-rated players in the world all coming in with recent wins and good form--but old-timer Phil Mickelson has won a tournament already this year and--perhaps most importantly--Tiger Wood is healthy and is also looking like the Tiger Woods of old.

The talking heads are building up the possibility of a mega-shootout between the old guard and the young guns with the possibility of multiple lead changes and birdies and eagles coming from everywhere on the back nine as America tunes in in 4K high definition and goes nuts on social media.  "We will be talking about this tournament for generations" we are told--because it can't help but be one of the greatest ever.

But like I said about the modern hype machine, that never seems to turn out as great as we expect.  Rain on Saturday at Augusta followed by unseasonably cool weather on Sunday may result in an endless parade of pars on the weekend.  Conditions like that in 2007 brought us a win by Zach Johnson--who has proven to be a very good player (winning the British Open in brutal conditions in 2015)--but someone that nobody was predicting to capture a green jacket before things got started.

The "greatest ever" tends to be more organic--and more surprising.  The 1986 Masters--widely considered to be THE "greatest ever" had no pre-tournament hype about 46-year old Jack Nicklaus coming out of nowhere to shoot lights out on the back nine on Sunday while all of the best players in the world crumbled around him down the stretch.  It was that total unexpectedness that made Jack's run even more special.

So unlike the guys on TV who have been agonizing all week over which high-powered superstar is going to emerge from some wild shootout as the winner, I'm going for the "not living up to expectations" route and taking a solid--but not spectacular--player for my pick to don the green jacket: lefty, Brian Harmon.  No, his win won't make it the "greatest Masters ever"--but it will fit in with the way things are going nowadays.

No Distance Will Be Great Enough

I hope every Republican running for elected office in Wisconsin this fall is in good physical shape--because all of them will be trying to distance themselves as far as possible from President Trump on the campaign trail.  A simple stiff arm likely won't do it for voters--this will have to be a full-on sprint in the opposition direction, yelling and screaming all the way.  Of course, if the Administration didn't veer wildly from one position to another on an hour-by-hour basis, it might be easier to stay far away from it.

The candidate the party didn't want who became the President they thought could be "useful" is now the hair shirt that every active member of the GOP must wear.  Along with an albatross around their necks.  And the anchor tied around their ankles.  The name "Donald Trump" is going to be used so often this year that votes will think that we have just skipped the 2018 mid-terms and gone straight to the 2020 Presidential election.

Governor Walker was out sounding the alarm last night after the "conservative candidate" Michael Screnock got smoked in the race for State Supreme Court, claiming that "big money, out of state special interest groups are lying about what's going on in Wisconsin".  But I can guarantee that behind closed doors today he and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and all of the other state GOP bigwigs are trying to figure out how to separate themselves from clown show going on at the White House.

And that isn't going to be easy, because no such effort was made until now.  Yes, most party members threw tepid support behind Ted Cruz before the Wisconsin Presidential Primary (that was supposed to stall the "Trump Train"--but had little effect on the eventual outcome)--but then they held their noses and appeared at campaign stops with the eventual nominee--and cheered his win in Wisconsin in November.  But since then, they have been largely silent about threatening tweets, a lack of factual knowledge, constant turnover, attacks on the justice system, efforts to alienate nearly every segment of the population, and daily flip-flops on important issues.  Although, they were once again willing to whoop and holler when the President signed tax reform into law.

The President likes to pat himself on the back by calling his election the "Greatest Upset In Political History".  But the way it looks now, all other Republicans will refer to it as the "Worst Pyrrhic Victory In Political History".

WARNING!!! TOO MANY WARNINGS!!!!!

If you ever travel to California and you buy a cup of coffee in the morning, don't be surprised if there is a large warning label on it.  A Los Angeles judge has ruled that java contains a chemical compound that the state of California has determined to be carcinogenic--and the public must be warned about that every time someone wants to order coffee.  No doubt that warning will go right next to the warning on the cups that reminds you that coffee is hot and that if you spill it on yourself you will likely get burned.

I'm sure that judge feels good about himself having protected the fragile people of California from the dangers of acrylamide--but he's bound to be disappointed the next time he drives by a Starbucks or a Dunkin Donut and sees the cars lined up around the building to buy coffee at the drive thru window--and the lines of people getting their joe without even looking once at the "COFFEE MAY CAUSE CANCER!!" warning label that he helped to put in place.

Let's face it, we have to be warned about so many "dangers" today that we as a society have come to just ignore the vast majority of them.  I noticed some perfect examples of that just last week when we got a new dishwasher at the house.  The box in which it came had warnings on every side of it DO NOT TIP UNIT ON ITS SIDE--but what did the store employees do first to get it into my Grand Cherokee?  Tipped it on its side.  When I jokingly pointed that out they replied "they just put that on there so you don't stack them up on their sides--I think".  Then when it was home and our plumber was installing it, both the installation and user guides came in separate packages with bright yellow warning labels saying READ GUIDE COMPLETELY BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO INSTALL OR USE THIS UNIT.  The only time the installation guide was referred to was when there was a minor problem getting one of the connections to fit right.  And then my wife and I gave the user's guide a cursory glance over before using the dishwasher for the first time.

I should note, that it's not just Americans that ignore all of those warnings.  At the sundries shop inside the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas they sell cigarettes in the international packaging where the health warnings make up pretty much the entire front of the carton.  I expected to hear a customer ask the clerk "Give me a box of the SECOND HAND SMOKE IS DANGEROUS TO CHILDREN and a couple packs of SMOKING WILL GIVE YOUR LUNG CANCER please."  But based on the constant haze of smoke hanging over the casino, nobody seemed too concerned about those warnings--nor did the families with kids walking through the room to get to the waterpark and aquariums.

Nearly all of these warnings are due to two things: One, over-protective government bodies and bureaucrats that believe you are a total moron and are incapable of doing anything without hurting or killing yourself.  And two, corporate attorneys who know that you are a total moron that is incapable of doing anything without hurting or killing yourself, but if we tell you not to do it, it might give us some legal immunity if your estate tries to sue us.

Maybe if the Los Angeles judge ordered gun makers to put warning stickers on their products, that might make schools and urban areas "safer"!

The Million Dollar County Board

Just when you thought big-money spending couldn't get any worse in politics, the campaigns for Milwaukee County Board are about to go over one-million dollars.  There is actually just one person responsible for that spending, County Executive Chris Abele--who between his own contributions to candidates, his formation of a local political action group to back those candidates and fundraising on behalf of his candidates is pouring seven-figures into what are basically neighborhood elections.

For those not familiar with Chris Abele, he is a millionaire--the son of the founder of Boston Scientific.  He first came to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University and stuck around afterwards to live in the Milwaukee area.  He is one of those "one-percenters" that blame the "one-percent" for all of society's problems--and he likes to spend other people's money on ever-expanding government services and programs.

However, Abele is sometimes thwarted in his efforts to do things like spend 770-thousand dollars of taxpayer money on public art displays at the County Courthouse instead of repairing failing systems inside the building, or establishing a wheel tax on private vehicles to fund public transportation programs instead of fixing roads, and charging a parking fee in county parks--by members of the Milwaukee County Board.  And that is why he is spending beaucoup bucks--though still chump change for him--on getting people he knows will support his "initiatives" elected.

Now imagine if you are one of the candidates that Abele has decided to oust from office.  You likely work a regular 9-to-5 job, have kids to support, a mortgage and car payments.  You are not about to spend $200,000 to offset the efforts of a multi-millionaire to push you out of a part-time job you do because you want to have decent parks and roads.  But if you don't run, Chris Abele gets to dip into your pocket to fund whatever his heart desires anyway.

Not every county has a trust-fund baby that considers himself a "social engineer" and wants to turn his community into a personal version of "The Sims" video game.  But six and seven-figure county board and city council races are a point at which we the voters have to draw the line.