Today in 1967, Jimi Hendrix released “Purple Haze”:
Three years later, Hendrix made his last concert appearance in Great Britain at the Isle of Wight Festival, which also featured, for your £3 ticket …
No comments on Presty the DJ for Aug. 26
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Gov. Scott Walker pledged the creation of 250,000 jobs during his first term in office, a number the state has not reached.
What is Walker’s response?
As I have predicted here and elsewhere, Walker is not going to lose one vote because of not reaching the 250,000-job self-pledge. Walker could cure cancer and not get the vote of this state’s liberals.
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The joke was in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal:
Today it is easy to see why Wisconsin’s capital city was named for James Madison, father of the U.S. Constitution and our fourth president, who guided the country through its second war for independence. He was a national hero.
But we have the luxury of looking backward through history. Had we lived 200 years ago, as the War of 1812 was unfolding, our view would have been dramatically different. In fact, on Aug. 24, 1814, as British troops laid waste to Washington, D.C., we likely would have been prepared to condemn Madison for causing the death of the United States before it reached its 40th birthday.
What happened next changed U.S. history and Madison’s legacy. Throughout, Madison and his wife, Dolley, displayed the grit and leadership their country needed to rise up from humiliating defeat. Our community, as Madison’s namesake, should learn from the Madisons’ example as we face the challenges of the future. …
In 1814 Britain defeated Napoleon and turned more attention to America. In mid-August a British fleet landed 35 miles from Washington, D.C. Madison left the capital, not to flee but to face the moment head on. He met with his generals in Maryland, where American forces would make their stand. He remained there the next day as the British routed the Americans.
In Washington, Dolley Madison’s evacuation of the Executive Mansion became an iconic tale of bravery and patriotism. Just before leaving, she grabbed a copy of the Declaration of Independence and supervised the rescue of a copy of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, to save them from British hands.
Three days after the British burned most of the government buildings in Washington, the Madisons returned to the capital, moving into a private home. The public rallied behind the first couple, who personified America’s courage.
Whatever his missteps, Madison — though only 5 feet, 4 inches in height — stood tall through perilous times. Then, when it looked as if the war would end in a lopsided British victory, the tide turned. On Sept. 11 American forces defeated the British at Lake Champlain. Two days later a British attack on Baltimore’s Fort McHenry failed, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became our national anthem.
The British, still concerned about France, now wanted to end the fighting with the United States. The two sides signed a treaty in Belgium, restoring the pre-war status quo. Neither side won, befitting a war that both should have avoided.
But before news of the treaty reached America, Major General Andrew Jackson defeated an attacking British force at New Orleans. Jackson’s conclusive victory made it appear that the United States won the war. Madison became the president who won the second war for independence.
Leap ahead to 1836. James Doty, a politician and profiteer, was successfully lobbying to have Wisconsin’s territorial capital moved to a city he planned around four lakes. He named the city Madison, after the former president, who died that year. He could hardly have made a better choice.
That editorial prompted this response …
I find this a very inspiring message about pulling victory out of the claws of defeat.
As I look at the massive messes We The People face (many still denied), I can easily get distraught and discouraged.I see this namesake city of Madison having the potential to birth an inspiring NEW leap in freedom, democracy, and consciousness… whether through a new Declaration of Independence, a new Constitution, or a co-created evolution of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
… which makes me think that either someone was doing the wacky weed early on Sunday, or has no idea what the Declaration of Independence or Constitution is about. (Both are possible.)
The issue here is not the State Journal’s history. The issue is that there is anything about Madison the People’s Republic that compares to Madison the president, or for that matter any of the Founding Fathers.
To fall prey to every stupid, though popular, left-wing impulse does not demonstrate “grit and leadership.” To rely on government for your economy (which is like turning on a faucet and announcing that you’ve discovered water) isn’t either. And, of course, “bravery and patriotism” describes no one in city government, at least not since about 1973.
Besides that, I thought Madison changed its name to Ho Chi Minh City in 1975. To that slander came this response:
Moscow on the Yahara.
At least one other person gets it. Maybe the State Journal ought to take off the rose-colored glasses and look at Madison as what it really is … grossly overrated.
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Does anyone find it a bit creepy that the number one song in Great Britain today in 1957 is about Paul Anka’s brother’s babysitter?
Three years later, the number one single across the sea required no words:
Two years later, the number one U.S. single was a dance that was easier than learning your ABCs:
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Today in 1963, Little Stevie Wonder became the first artist to have the number one pop single and album and to lead the R&B charts with his “Twelve-Year-Old Genius”:
Today in 1974 the rock charts were topped by one of the more dubious number-one singles:
Today in 1990, at the beginning of Operation Desert Shield, Sinead O’Connor refused to sing if the National Anthem was performed before her concert at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Homdel, N.J. Radio stations respond by pulling O’Connor’s music from their airwaves.
That was the same day that Iron Maiden won a lawsuit from the families of two people who committed suicide, claiming that subliminal messages in the group’s “Stained Class” album drove them to kill themselves.
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With high school football starting tonight (or later this afternoon, in my personal case), Buzzfeed passes on truisms from the ultimate high school football coach, Dillon Panthers coach Eric Taylor from NBC-TV’s “Friday Night Lights”:
1. He taught us to keep our composure.
2. And the importance of being punctual.
3. He taught us responsibility.
5. He taught us character.
6. And how to earn people’s respect.
12. And to tell the people close to you that you’re proud of them.
16. And how to be champions.
17. But most importantly, he taught us these six words to live by…
Come to think of it, this doesn’t have to apply just to high school football. Or to high school.
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I am highly dubious about the premise of this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story:
The math keeps getting better for the Milwaukee Brewers.
After sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in improbable and relentless fashion, the Brewers now have the best record in the National League at 70 wins and 55 losses, and lead the St. Louis Cardinals by three games in the National League Central.
The Brewers can go 18-19 down the stretch while the Cardinals would have to finish 22-17 just to force a tie for the division lead.
With fewer than 40 games to go, how likely is it that the Brewers make the playoffs? I compiled a handful of projections and put them in a table:
Brewers’ playoff odds, as of 08/17 FanGraphs’ projections mode 82.9% Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds report 88.4% Sports Clubs Stats’ projections 94.7% Those percentages all went up compared with last week’s projections.
For a further explanation on the accuracy of baseball forecasting and why I use FanGraphs’ data, click here.
Click on the link, and you’ll get additional data, if that’s what you want to call this, about the Brewers’ chances beyond just getting into the playoffs as of earlier this week.
The more up to date data can be found at FanGraphs, and you get a different set of predictions there. Those projections have the Brewers and Cardinals tying for the NL Central title, with 88 wins each. The Brewers there, as of Wednesday, had a 52.8-percent chance of winning the NL Central, where the Cardinals had a 42.9 percent chance of winning the Central. That may seem like a lot, but it is actually the second closest projection (the closest is the AL Central).
One reason you probably shouldn’t buy this is that the Brewers and the Cardinals have seven games against each other in September. The Brewers are 5–7 against the Cardinals, and the Cardinals made trades to get better pitching (though that pitching hasn’t been better so far), and the Brewers haven’t. What would be worse, frankly, is for a repeat of 2011 — the Brewers get the wins over the Cardinals in the regular season, and then the Cardinals get the last laugh in the postseason.
The other is that this tries to predict based on past performance. If you believe the Brewers have been playing over their heads (suffice to say that no one was predicting the Brewers would be in first place in late August), regression to the mean predicts an ugly September, particularly given their schedule (harder than the Cardinals’ schedule) and their lack of big-game-experienced pitching.
Even if you buy this, you shouldn’t get your hopes up of a deep playoff run. The Brewers have just an 8.8-percent chance of getting to the World Series and a 2.8-percent chance of winning the World Series.
This Debbie Downer act of mine (but I am far from the only fan who feels this way) disgusts Gene Mueller:
The Brewers are atop the National League Central by three games as the new week begins, fresh off a sweep of the Los Angeles freakin’ Dodgers. It’s a lofty perch they’ve held since well-before you mailed in your income taxes. Think about that for a second, fans: a club given paltry-at-best chances of contending has been in first place for more than four months. …
But from Opening Day on, when the team’s early success was a pleasant surprise until these back-to-school-days of summer, there’s been an undercurrent flowing among fans, one that oozes doom and gloom, one that reeks of pending despair.
Jonathan Lucroy is an MVP candidate. Aramis Ramirez is strong and steady at third. Carlos Gomez is remains a beast. Ryan Braun fights gamely on even though he’s left with only one functioning opposable thumb. Starting pitching? No worries–beyond a pleasant surprise, in fact. So what’s not to love? Why are so many True Blue members of the Brew Crew so…blue?
They worry about Braun’s functionality. They fret about first base where Lyle Overbay isn’t the doubles machine we loved during his first tour of duty and where Mark Reynolds is prone to the whiff between prodigious homers. They don’t care to see Rickey Weeks sharing time with Scooter Gennett at second. They worry about Jean Segura’s slide at the plate, and Khris Davis’ issues in left field. And, they live in mortal fear about the bullpen.
Solid points, indeed, but enough to take the shine off what’s been a season for the ages so far?
A team is the sum of its parts and the bottom line for the Brewers so far is that it’s a club good enough to lead a division where no one’s caught fire. The Cards, Pirates and Reds haven’t gone on any daunting win streaks, but then again, Milwaukee hasn’t, either. The Brewers July swoon served to fortify the doubters, and the lack of a torrid streak keeps many wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.
St. Louis is always a threat, and the Redbirds are due to get some starting pitchers back in September, just in time for the kind of run many fear could undo the Brewers–there’s something about that red parakeet that strikes fear in the heart of even the most fervid Milwaukee seam head–while Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are contending despite injuries to key position players. It would be nice to see some of these clubs falter, but that hasn’t been the case.
The big worries for Brewers fans should be injury and the pop-gun offense: the team lacks depth among position players and losing a big bat could be a death knell. The attack? Milwaukee seems to score just enough to get by but too often goes into funks that leave its hitters estranged from home plate. It’s those kind of slumps that can be enough to thwart a late-season push during a critical series, or bounce a team from the playoffs in an early round.
The trade deadline came and went with GM Doug Melvin making a deal for another outfielder, Gold Glover Gerardo Parra. It wasn’t enough for some fans, but the asking price for other available talent seemed too high with more than a few clubs hot for Jimmy Nelson. Sometimes, the best trade is the one you DON’T make. That said, don’t think Melvin is done looking for help, as deals can still get done (once those involved clear waivers). He’s not the kind of guy to sit on his hands, especially when the club is this close to the playoffs.
Cheer up, Brewers Nation! This is the kind of season many dreamed of but few thought would happen. Not only is your team contending in a tough division, it’s leading the pack in late August. This could be a fantastic late summer that could segue into an exciting autumn. And, even if the worst happens, how can anyone say they’re disappointed by the kind of baseball we’ve been treated to in 2014 (factoring out a large hunk of July, of course)?
Well, for one thing, 88 projected wins isn’t that impressive, even if it’s second best in the National League. That right there probably tells you what you need to know, that the National League isn’t very good this year. The Cardinals’ odds of winning the World Series are 5.3 percent, which indirectly proves a point about the value of pitching in a short playoff series. And Melvin has nine days to get better pitching before the playoff roster deadline.
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Today in 1964, the Supremes reached number one by wondering …
Today in 1968, the Beatles briefly broke up when Ringo Starr quit during recording of their “White Album.” Starr rejoined the group Sept. 3, but in the meantime the remaining trio recorded “Back in the USSR” with Paul McCartney on drums and John Lennon on bass:
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Americans for Prosperity unveiled its 2014 Wisconsin Economic Report, which states …
Pro-growth policies signed into law by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker have helped bring renewed economic prosperity to Wisconsin. During Governor Walker’s time in office, job growth has increased, unemployment has fallen, taxes have been cut, state revenue has increased, and the quality of education has improved. The state is back on stable financial footing, and job creators overwhelmingly believe Wisconsin is headed in the right direction.AFP’s evidence is found in these charts:
You would think it would be hard to make the tiresome Democratic argument about job growth (particularly when it’s not accompanied by a plan to improve job growth beyond what’s happened since Scott Walker became governor) when Wisconsin’s job growth is better than our Midwestern neighbors.
This actually is not much of an improvement — about 2.2 percent from 2011 to 2013. It looks better, though, when compared with this Tax Foundation graphic …
… that shows that the cost of things in Wisconsin is less than all our neighbors except Iowa and Indiana.
This graphic is both a positive and a negative. Tax revenue growth as a result of economic growth as a positive. It also shows, however, that our taxes are still too high, which AFP grants:
However, there is still more work to do. Wisconsin’s income tax remains too high, with almost 12 percent of individuals’ income – $118 out of every $1,000 earned—going to paying local and state taxes. Wisconsin has seen billions of dollars leave the state because of these high tax rates, an outflow that benefits lower-income tax states, many of which enjoy even greater growth and prosperity than Wisconsin does.
The good news is that Governor Walker and Wisconsin lawmakers have made significant headway by cutting taxes by some $2 billion. Just this past May, amid a billion dollar surplus, Walker and the legislature provided additional tax relief in the form of a $541 million income and property tax cut.
As Walker stated when he signed the cut into law, “You deserve to keep as much of your hard-earned money as possible — because after all, it is your money.” More work still needs to be done in order for the state to increase its competitiveness, but Walker’s tax cuts are a great start.
However, not only are the tax cuts not enough, something else needs to happen. Wisconsin is, not surprisingly, according to The Street, the 10th most socialist state in the U.S. (way to go, Fighting Bob, or should the namesake of my high school be called Bolshevik Bob?):
Total State Expenditures (FY 2013): $42.8 Billion
Gross Domestic Product (2013): $254.1 Billion
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 16.2%
“America’s Dairyland” is the 10th most socialist state in America on this list with its economy largely driven by manufacturing, agriculture, and health care. Wisconsin is known for high property taxes and ranks fourth nationally in this category.
Its residents have voted for Democrats in nine of the last 10 presidential elections.
The Street’s rationale:
Socialism at its core is a political term applied to an economic system in which individual property, like money, is held and used in common, within a state or a country as an attempt to equalize the standard of living for the average citizen.
In a completely socialist society, there would be no money. Basic needs such as food, shelter, education and healthcare would be available and provided to everyone, so division of classes based on wealth would not exist.
But if America is really turning into a more socialist country, then where can we see evidence of this happening? Are any states becoming socialist before our eyes? And if so, how do we define the most socialist state, you ask?
In order to measure the degree to which different states reflect socialist principles, we determined state expenditures and state GDP as the best indicators because socialist states tax and spend a higher percentage of their GDP. We used data on the total state expenditures for fiscal year 2013 from the most recent National Association of State Budget Officers report and pulled 2013 gross domestic product by state data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The math? Simple. The FY2013 state expenditure divided by the state’s 2013 GDP.
By this criteria, the states you’d think would be most socialist are not, and the states you’d think would be least socialist are not. The rampant excessive government in Illinois, for instance, is overcome by that state’s much larger economy.
The fate of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact should have proven that government does not create prosperity for its citizens. But in this state, some people fail to learn.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 