FREE WHITEWATER

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Litigation, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.29.26: Federal Court Denies Trump Admin Access to Wisconsin’s Voter Rolls

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset is 8:24 for 15 hours 2 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In over thirty attempts, the Trump Administration, through the Department of Justice it so tightly manipulates, has sought the voter rolls of state governments. One of those attempts was to receive Wisconsin’s unredacted voter list. In December, the Wisconsin Elections Commission denied the federal government access to our state’s list:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday denied a demand from the U.S. Department of Justice for the state’s full voter registration list, including personally identifiable information such as dates of birth, driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers. 

At a special meeting Thursday afternoon and in a letter sent in response to the DOJ demand, WEC stated that Wisconsin law explicitly prevents the commission from sharing the personal information of voters. 

“The U.S. DOJ is simply asking the commission to do something the commission is explicitly forbidden by Wisconsin law to do,” commissioner Don Millis said. 

See Henry Redman, Elections commission denies U.S. DOJ demand for voter personal information, Wisconsin Examiner, December 12, 2025.

Trump’s Department of Justice then sued to gain access to Wisconsinites’ voter information. A federal court dismissed that DOJ lawsuit this month:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission refused to provide that documentation, citing state privacy laws. That prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to sue, arguing that it needed the unredacted information to ensure that Wisconsin was complying with the federal Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act. It also argued that the Elections Commission was required to provide the list under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

On Thursday [5.21.26], however, U.S. District James Peterson dismissed that suit with prejudice. 

“The court agrees that a voter registration list is not a record subject to production under Title III,” Peterson wrote. “So it will dismiss the complaint on that ground without considering defendants’ other arguments.”

[…]

The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against 29 other states and the District of Columbia. So far, federal courts have dismissed eight of those suits on the merits, according to the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. That includes a case against Maine, which was also dismissed Thursday.

See Sarah Lehr, Judge rejects Trump administration’s attempt to get unredacted Wisconsin voter registration list, Wisconsin Public Radio, May 21, 2026.

See also United States v. Wis. Elections Comm’n, No. 25-cv-1036-jdp, slip op. (W.D. Wis. May 21, 2026):

3:25-cv-01036-jdpDownload

This case was dismissed with prejudice (where dismissal with prejudice means, generally, that a dismissal is treated as a final adjudication on the merits for claim-preclusion purposes). Cases that reach a final adjudication on the merits cannot be refiled again merely because a plaintiff wants a different result. In this opinion and order, the court found that

The Seventh Circuit [the appellate court with jurisdiction over this trial court] has cautioned against dismissing a complaint without leave to amend, but the court may do so if any amendment would be futile. Indep. Tr. Corp. v. Stewart Info. Servs. Corp., 665 F.3d 930, 943 (7th Cir. 2012). The court has concluded that Title III
does not even apply to the government’s request for Wisconsin’s voter registration list, so there is no way that it could amend its complaint to state a claim for relief. The government’s complaint will be dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend.

Id. at 10.

Because there was no acceptable argument the federal DOJ could have made to cure the deficiencies of its complaint, the case was dismissed without an (unwarranted) opportunity to amend.

It’s not enough — in a free society under law — for government to want something. It’s not enough for Donald J. Trump to demand something. Government must justify its wants and demands.

This republic under the rule of law is more than an aged man gratifying his appetites at a vulgar club in South Florida.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket explodes during test on launch pad:

A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin exploded during a test at the launch pad Thursday night, shaking nearby homes and briefly painting the sky orange. Blue Origin said its New Glenn rocket exploded during an engine-firing test being conducted ahead of a satellite launch planned for next week. No one was hurt, according to officials at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Daily Bread, Elections, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Poll, Wisconsin, WisDems

Daily Bread for 5.28.26: Voters Are Never Undecided

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:23 for 15 hours 2 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Board of Zoning Appeals meets at 5 PM and the Ethics Board at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 2002, the last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site. Cleanup duties officially end with closing ceremonies at Ground Zero.

So, here’s a literal title for the literal-minded among us: voters are never undecided.1 Poll respondents may be undecided (‘no opinion,’ ‘don’t know’) but those who have voted are by definition those who have made a choice at the ballot box. Wisconsin ballots allow for a write-in candidate, and one can skip casting a vote in a particular race, but our ballots do not have an option for still unsure.

By contrast, in polling, respondents often have the choice to say that they are undecided. Many Wisconsin Democrats answer questions about their preference for governor that way — most now say they are undecided.

That uncertainty is about to fade:

The push comes at a time when many voters are looking to disconnect from politics, said Anthony Chergosky, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

“One of the defining features of this campaign in the Democratic Party, so far, has been the general lack of awareness among voters of the candidates, and of — in many situations — just the existence of the campaign itself,” Chergosky said.

The seven major candidates on the Democratic side — and a few others considered much longer shots — all occupy a small sliver of voter attention. The vast majority of likely Democratic voters are undecided, according to recent polling. Only two rank in double digits among Democrats who’ve said they’ve made up their mind about who to support in the primary.

So for candidates like Crowley and Rodriguez — viable, but with lower name recognition — a spending boost from a political action committee could make a big difference, said Chergosky.

“The outside money is really important in a crowded field like this, because it’s going to take resources to stand out with so many competitors,” he said.

Outside groups can spend lots of money on a candidate without being subject to the same disclosure laws as the campaigns themselves. That provides a powerful money boost while small donations to campaigns may be trickling in, and are capped by state law. It also lets wealthier individuals throw their weight behind a given candidate without being directly tied to them.

See Anya van Wagtendonk, Ad spending starts in crowded Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor, Wisconsin Public Radio, May 28, 2026.

Money buys campaign ads, campaign ads persuade, and the persuaded become voters.

_____

  1. While not voting (either by not casting a ballot or by skipping a particular race on the ballot) is a choice, it’s not a choice of voting, or of a member of the electorate as a voter. This takes the discussion into abstruse territory, while the post’s main point still stands: Wisconsin Democrats will shift from indecision to decision soon. Further consideration of the nuances would require an Old Fashioned (brandy sweet always, and only after 5 PM). ↩︎

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Psyche Spacecraft Prepares for Mars Flyby:

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will pass about 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) from the Martian surface at 12,328 mph (19,840 kph) on May 15, 2026. The Red Planet will provide a crucial gravity assist, enabling the spacecraft to reach its namesake destination in the main asteroid belt. Known as a gravitational slingshot, the propellant-saving maneuver harnesses Mars’ gravity to boost the spacecraft’s speed and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche for a 2029 arrival. The mission team will use the encounter to calibrate the spacecraft’s instruments. By capturing thousands of observations of Mars with the multispectral imager, engineers can hone the precise imaging and navigation techniques required to orbit Psyche and study what scientists believe is the exposed nickel-iron core of an ancient planet. This flyby represents a critical intersection of orbital mechanics and deep-space instrument testing on the mission’s journey to a metal world.

Budget, Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, Speaker Vos, State Government, Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 5.27.26: Wisconsin Surpluses, Deficits, and Popular Opinion

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see periods of clouds and sun with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:22 and sunset is 8:22 for 15 hours of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.

Wisconsin’s leading officials (Gov. Evers, Speaker Vos, and Senate Majority Leader LeMahieu) proposed a plan to spend down the state’s budget surplus only to meet opposition from WISGOP candidate Tom Tiffany, many WisDems legislators, and a few WISGOP backbenchers. That opposition sank the proposal.

An analysis — published after the deal failed — from Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that the spend-down would have led to a state budget deficit of $2.9 billion. See Bob Lang, Director, Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Memorandum (May 20, 2026)

Polling from Marquette Law School conducted May 20-21 suggests that most Wisconsinites favored the surplus spend-down:

A new Marquette Law School Poll finds 80% of Wisconsin adults say the legislature should have passed a proposed bill using the projected state budget surplus to reduce property taxes, increase special education funding, and provide rebates to taxpayers. Eleven percent say the legislature should have defeated the bill, and 9% don’t know whether the bill should have passed or not.

See Charles Franklin, Marquette Law School Poll finds 4 out of 5 say Wisconsin legislature should have passed Evers/GOP property tax, rebates, and special education bill, Marquette Law School, May 26, 2026.

What to make of support for a proposal that a reliable projection estimated would lead to a multi-billion dollar budget deficit? Crucially, even when respondents were told that the proposal could produce a future budget deficit, the spend-down still received wide support:

Table 4: Pass budget surplus bill now or wait until next year, by party identification

Among adults

Party IDPass now or wait
Better to delay special education funding, property tax reductions, and rebate checks until next yearBetter to provide special education funding, property tax reductions, and rebate checks nowDon’t know
Among all adults21699
Republican24688
Independent226711
Democrat18749
Marquette Law School Poll, Wisconsin survey, May 20-21, 2026
Question: Some have argued that the bill was fiscally irresponsible for spending a projected surplus now that might lead to a deficit in future budgets. Would it be better to delay providing special education funding, property tax reductions, and rebate checks until next year, or would it be better to provide them now, even if it might affect the budget next year?

(Emphasis added.) Respondents from all major political affiliations favored spending down the surplus today even at the risk of a deficit tomorrow.

That retiring leaders Evers, Vos, and LeMahieu were closer to the popular will than Republican Tiffany and many Democrats in the Legislature should give Tiffany and those Democrats pause.

Perhaps they don’t understand Wisconsinites’ views so well as they thought — something for all of us to consider when assessing the popular mood.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Watch Scorsese Make a Mean Sandwich in ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ | Anatomy of a Scene:

When you run a food truck and have a lot of sandwiches to make, it helps to have four arms.
That’s the case with the character Hugo Durant, who serves up a flat meat fry to Mando (Pedro Pascal) in this scene from “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.” If the name Hugo sounds as familiar as the sound of the character, that’s because he’s named after the movie “Hugo,” which was directed by Martin Scorsese, who lends his voice to the scene. Narrating the sequence, the “Mandalorian and Grogu” director Jon Favreau discusses how he and his team animated the character to Scorsese’s audio improv.
About that flat meat fry: While it’s a fictional sandwich and is created with computer graphics here, Favreau worked with the chef Roy Choi (who also consulted on Favreau’s food-truck comedy “Chef”) to come up with a recipe for the sandwich. The ingredients include hairy egg, which is actually an Easter egg from the second episode of the first season of “The Mandalorian.” Order up!

America, City, Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Police, Politics, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 5.26.26: Rep. Francesca Hong on Policing

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see periods of clouds and sun with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:22 and sunset is 8:21 for 14 hours 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM, the Board of Review at 5:30 PM, and the Aquatic Center Committee at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1896, Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

I have been skeptical of political analyst Craig Gilbert’s assessments, as they often seem too conventional. His most recent summary about the 2026 Wisconsin gubernatorial race, however, concludes perceptively:

What does all this mean for the 2026 governor’s race? The Democratic primary contest is still early and open-ended. The field is huge; at least nine candidates have filed.

The shifting climate in the party has already helped Hong raise her profile, but Barnes remains the best-known Democrat with the highest positive ratings among party voters. The growth and energy of the party’s left flank is probably a challenge to the more moderate candidates in the field.

As for November, the questions are even bigger. By every traditional political measure, this has been shaping up nationally as a good midterm election for Democrats and a bad one for Republicans.

One possibility is that Democrats move too far left and squander a golden opportunity to extend their eight-year run in the governor’s office in Wisconsin. Another is that the combination of Trump’s unpopularity, the energy on the left, and a surge in turnout among angry Democratic voters makes almost anyone the party nominates the favorite in this election.

See Craig Gilbert, What Wisconsin Democrats’ leftward shift means for midterms, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 15, 2026.

Gilbert is right to conclude that “almost anyone” the party nominates would be a favorite in the race. Almost anyone might not include Wisconsin Rep. Francesca Hong of Madison:

Years after mayors from Democratic cities reversed course on calls to defund police departments, one of the leading Democratic candidates for governor of Wisconsin is running with a starkly different record: she didn’t just back defunding police — she called to abolish them. And unlike many in her party, she has neither deleted those posts nor renounced them.

Francesca Hong has repeatedly called for abolishing police departments, according to a CNN KFile review of her social media posts, interviews and statements.

Hong, a 37-year-old state representative and democratic socialist, wrote on X in 2020 she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” She later argued in 2021 that “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”

[…]

In a statement to CNN, Hong did not disavow her past support for abolishing police departments, calling it part of a “wider conversation around police abolition” rooted in her belief that “the current system is not working.”

See Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, ‘Defund then abolish’: A leading Democrat in Wisconsin governor’s race urged abolishing police, CNN, May 22, 2026.

While I’ve not been reluctant to criticize police leadership in this city (Coan, Otterbacher), or particular police actions (sitting with Sen. Ron Johnson, the city’s wholly predicable public-relations fiasco of the ‘Biden Letter’), this libertarian blogger has never called for abolishing the police, and never will.

The case for police abolition isn’t wrong merely because it’s unpopular; it’s wrong because it’s ludicrous. (Ludicrous proposals, it turns out, are also often unpopular.) It’s not a matter of whether anyone will patrol the city; it’s whether skillful officers do so.

Rep. Hong’s unwillingness to disavow her past statements and her current reply that it’s all part of a “wider conversation around police abolition” betrays an ideological rigidity and political immaturity. Winning a primary doesn’t guarantee a general election victory; a nomination offers no more than a chance to win or lose in November. Rep. Hong should decide whether she wants to make a statement in May 2026 or make policy after January 2027.

A Democrat’s unwillingness to abandon a bad idea is the closest that Republican Tom Tiffany will come to a good idea.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Pygmy falcom scrubs up:

America, Daily Bread, Holiday, Military, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.25.26: Soldier from Rhinelander Identified Eighty-Six Years Later

by  • 

Good morning.

Memorial Day in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset is 8:20 for 14 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 71.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Memorial Day parade begins at 10:30 AM from Fairhaven’s Hearthstone Memory Care and will proceed along North Street to Whitewater’s Old Armory.

On this day in 1961, President Kennedy announces the Project Apollo before a special joint session of Congress: that the United States “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

A Wisconsin soldier now returns home:

After 86 years, Army Cpl. John “Jack” Ginzl is finally home in Rhinelander.

He was buried the day before Memorial Day in a public ceremony at Forest Home Cemetery. Jack had previously been interred in a military cemetery in Hawaii, in a grave for unidentified soldiers.

Jack volunteered for the military before the Pearl Harbor attack sent America into the Second World War. He was stationed in the Philippines when Japan invaded, shortly after the attack.

He fought in a months-long battle, was captured and endured the Bataan Death March.

Jack spent years as a prisoner of war before dying on Jan. 9, 1945, when allied aircraft bombed the unmarked prison ship where he was held in what is now Taiwan. The bombers did not know there were hundreds of American prisoners aboard.

For more than three-quarters of a century, Jack’s identity was lost among the unaccounted for dead.

Now, with the help of DNA research and the ongoing effort of the military to give names to the missing, Jack has returned to his family. On the day before Memorial Day, was laid to rest at Forest Home Cemetery in Rhinelander at the foot of his parents’ graves.

See Avery Martinez, After 86 years, Rhinelander soldier ID’d and buried at home, Wisconsin Public Radio, May 25, 2026.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Torrential rain and dangerous floods threaten other parts of the United States:

America, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.24.26: The ‘Economic Sh*tshow Beyond Your Wildest Imagination’

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:20 for 14 hours 56 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 62 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

View of Manhattan in 1876, showing the Brooklyn Bridge under construction, Public Domain, Link

Catherine Rampell, writing in The Bulwark, nicely describes the consequences of a pro-tariff policy:

The cost of Trump’s trade wars is often measured in the dollar value of the tariffs remitted to Customs and Border Protection—i.e., the roughly $166 billion in tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court. But in reality, the cost is much greater, and often harder to quantify.

It includes lost sales; soured relationships with longtime customers, both domestically and abroad; and the endless resources spent securing warehouses, or canceling and uncanceling production orders, or scheduling and rescheduling container shipments. It includes travel spent scouting out new factory locations in lower-tariff countries, only to find that Trump has picked a fight with those places, too. Then there are the employees who were laid off and contracts that were severed as companies tried to offset their higher costs from materials, equipment, and finished goods they import.

Layer onto that the paralyzing uncertainty caused by an ever-changing set of rules, which make it hard to plan any kind of investment or expansion. And finally, not least, there is the lingering, corrosive fear of retaliation—the concern that a company might accidentally displease the president while trying to do right by their customers and shareholders.

It is for this last reason that some firms are forgoing refunds entirely, despite being entitled to them. And no wonder: Trump himself has suggested the tariffs are part of his protection(ist) racket. “If they don’t do that [refrain from lawful compensation], I’ll remember them,” [Trump] told CNBC last month, after being informed that some large companies like Amazon were not applying for refunds.

If they remain reluctant to seek compensation, Amazon would be leaving a tremendous pile of cash on the table. In response to the company’s inaction, last week consumers filed a class-action lawsuit against the company to demand that it apply for rebates and pass along the refunds to customers. General Motors, which expects $500 million back, also reportedly considered opting out, but ultimately did apply for a refund.

See Catherine Rampell, Trump’s Tariffs Have Created an Economic Sh*tshow Beyond Your Wildest Imagination, The Bulwark, May 24, 2026.

Trump imposed unlawful tariffs and now uses coercion to prevent businesses from seeking lawful compensation.

Trump has held an obsession with tariffs almost his entire public life. He has been sure — which should make sensible people doubtful — that tariffs would restore domestic manufacturing. That restoration has not happened:

Wisconsin lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in 2025, driven in part by an aging workforce and hesitancy to expand hiring in an uncertain economy. 

Between January 2025 and January 2026, the state’s manufacturing workforce shrank by about 9,500 jobs, falling from 461,100 workers to 451,600, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The manufacturing workforce nationally declined by about 91,000 jobs over the same period.

Industry leaders say the job losses were driven more by worker retirements than widespread layoffs, though shifting tariffs and broader economic uncertainty have made some manufacturers more reluctant to hire.

See Joe Schulz, Wisconsin lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in 2025, Wisconsin Public Radio, May 4, 2026.

In eighteen months or eighteen years, tariffs will produce only higher costs and a declining global position.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

NASA’s new telescope aims for a fresh look at the Universe:

Daily Bread, Insects, Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.23.26: A Second State Insect for Wisconsin?

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:19 for 14 hours 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 51.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1949, the Basic Law establishing a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, comes into effect.

Image of Hine’s emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Photo by Dan Jackson.

Wisconsin has, by state law, adopted several animals and symbols, among them the honey bee (Apis mellifera) as the state insect. There’s a movement to designate the Hine’s emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana) as the state insect either in addition to, or instead of, the honey bee:

An effort to dethrone the honey bee as Wisconsin’s official state insect may be gaining ground. A campaign by the Wisconsin Dragonfly Society to put a rare, native dragonfly in its place got support in the Wisconsin Conservation Congress survey last month.

The Hine’s emerald dragonfly was believed to be extinct for decades. But it was rediscovered in Door County in 1987. Today, The Ridges Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor is a rare habitat for the endangered species and wildlife experts there are making the case for the species to get statewide recognition.

Tony Kiszonas, director of research at The Ridges Sanctuary, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the effort to get the species declared as the state insect of Wisconsin could help educate people about the species and the natural habitat it lives in.

The Hine’s emerald dragonfly species was named in 1931, two years after being categorized as a distinct species. Its range included Wisconsin and other Midwestern states. By the 1950s, it was believed to be extinct. Almost 40 years after its rediscovery, it remains a federally endangered species.

See Rob Ferrett, ‘Beautiful Emerald Eyes’: Wisconsin nature preserve promotes a dragonfly as state insect (‘Once thought extinct, the Hine’s emerald dragonfly has a niche in Door County’), Wisconsin Public Radio, May 15, 2026. See also Emily Mills, Rare Dragonfly Gets a Helping Hand, The Nature Conservancy, August 31, 2022.

I’ll not suggest that the Hine’s emerald should replace (rather than merely augment) the honey bee as a state insect, lest fanatical honey bee aficionados rampage through this community.

It does seem right, however, that Wisconsin should consider for a state insect a dragonfly species that is now endangered, is of our region, and requires the wetlands that are characteristic of our state’s natural beauty.

And, well, yes, those are beautiful emerald eyes.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Meet the hospital dogs that provide full-time care for young sick patients:

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Open Government, School District

Daily Bread for 5.22.26: ‘Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny’ for Politics, Not Science

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 66. Sunrise is 5:25 and sunset is 8:18 for 14 hours 53 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 40.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1819, the SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. (Savannah‘s departure had been delayed for two days “after one of her crew returned to the vessel in a highly inebriated state, fell off the gangplank, and drowned.”)

It was German scientist Ernst Haeckel, more than a century ago, who coined the now-discredited expression that ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,’ described simply as an organism’s development as an embryo (ontogeny) repeating (recapitulating) the evolutionary past of its species (phylogeny).

And yet, if not in the natural world, then perhaps elsewhere, one might find a concept of recapitulation to prove more fitting. (There are, in fact, social science concepts that do apply recapitulation.)

I’ll suggest a loose application of recapitulation theory (very loose and permissive!) to small-town politics: a political or cultural faction rising in a town adopts the form and behaviors of the prior factions it supplements or replaces. That faction’s evolution outside the womb, so to speak, reflects the habits of earlier factions in the community.

This claim would hold true despite ideology — it’s a claim about behavior apart from ideology. One can even set aside the metaphor to an old German scientist’s views and instead see this as a contemporary American condition (and problem): those who rise now, even and especially despite their claims of unique ideological positions, soon look and behave like those who came before.

And so, and so, when a faction comes along and says it’s a new approach (MAGA after traditional conservatives or the center-left after conservative cronyism) how it truly looks and what it truly risks being little more than a recapitulation of past forms and conduct.

If, for example, a district board goes from one ideological majority to another, yet exhibits the same habits and forms of the past, is it truly new? Is it not, instead, merely a descendant of, and a dependent of, earlier habits and forms?

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

French artist JR inflates a giant ‘cave’ over Paris’ oldest bridge:

Paris’ oldest bridge has vanished. This week, the artist known as the “French Banksy,” JR, inflated a giant “cave” over the Pont Neuf — a monumental, rocky illusion swallowing the 17th-century landmark whole.

Accidents, Cats

Friday Catblogging: 14 Floors Later

by  • 

Mont Blanc, a 9-month-old cat in Australia, survived a 14-story fall from his high rise apartment in Melbourne:

9-month-old Mont Blanc encountered his brush with death as he roamed around his home on the 20th floor of an apartment block in Melbourne, Australia. 

His owner, Tim Aupanno, decided to leave the balcony door slightly ajar before going to work so that the cat could use the bathroom while he was gone. But when he returned home, Mont Blanc had fallen from the balcony, plunging 14 stories and landing in a bush. 

[…]

It was only when a neighbor on the 6th floor heard meowing coming from the ledge outside her apartment that the missing cat was finally located.

See Gina Kalsi, ‘Miracle’ Cat Survives 14-Story Fall from Apartment Balcony: ‘Definitely the Highest We’ve Seen,’ People, May 21, 2026.

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, May 26, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Choral

by  • 

Tuesday, May 26 at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Choral @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Period Drama/History/Music

Rated R (language); 1 hour, 53 minutes (2025)

As World War I rages on, a demanding Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) takes over a British male choral society that’s lost most of its men to the army, leaving him to recruit teenagers. Together, they and their community soon discover that the best response to the chaos of war is to make beautiful music together. Says CSM film critic Peter Rainer, “It’s the kind of film that doesn’t get made much anymore.“ 

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

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Local Government, Public Safety, University

Daily Bread for 5.21.26: An Ordinary Student Festival in a Normal College Town

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 59. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset is 8:17 for 14 hours 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 29.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board’s Strategic Planning Work Group meets at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1917, the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).

This year’s annual Spring Splash was managed as it should have been: with the matter-of-fact approach required of a foreseeable, annual event in a college town. See City of Whitewater, Council Agenda Item, Spring Splash 2026 After Action Report (May 19, 2026) and Video Presentation of the Report.

Whitewater is a college town and so one can — and should — expect to see college students. Those who live in a forest can expect to see trees in all directions. Those living in a forest and don’t want to see pines or maples might consider moving from the forest. Those who are working at public expense in a forest and don’t want to see pines or maples might consider finding work elsewhere. (There have to be deserts, somewhere, just waiting…)

Years ago, however, many in Whitewater and among her municipal employees (appointed or in law enforcement) carried on as though this college town should not have college students. (More precisely: that students should be seen but not heard, or better yet neither seen nor heard except when their rent was due.)

Whitewater is a college town and she does, in fact, have college students among her residents. Some limited portion of their time will, naturally and understandably, be spent celebrating at semester’s end. One of those celebrations is the annual Spring Splash gathering.

While adults are responsible for their actions, it was never too much to ask our municipal officials — elected, appointed, or in law enforcement — that they manage public conduct smoothly and without fuss.

Long time coming, but welcome no less for it, is the recent level-headed approach to an ordinary student festival in a normal college town.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

Why meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex evolved to have tiny arms:

Why does such a big and powerful dinosaur like T. rex have such tiny forearms, in a new study scientists believe they might have the answer. They say the animal evolved to have a much larger head and jaws because the prey it was chasing was becoming much bigger, too.

City, Culture, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.20.26: The Next Generation Should Start in 3, 2, 1…

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see a mixture of clouds and sunshine with a high of 60. Sunrise is 5:27 and sunset is 8:16 for 14 hours 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

One of the problems that small towns have is that they struggle to bring younger people into positions of leadership, not merely in politics but among private community groups. In politics particularly, one can be sympathetic to the dynamic that the WISGOP faces, if not its aims: At annual convention, Wisconsin GOP’s old guard urges party to engage young voters.

(Significantly, the city’s electorate has selected the Whitewater Common Council well in this regard. The city’s councilmembers are an eclectic mix of young and middle-aged, of new and veteran members.)

Political parties and community groups across the state have the same need to bring in new, younger members in positions of responsibility. The problem these groups often face is a self-inflicted one. They place the oldest members in positions of authority, and use new recruits only for dull tasks with little recognition and reward. The rationalization for this hierarchy — that younger members need to learn the fundamentals — often becomes a justification for hoarding recognition and rewards among aged veterans of modest productivity but immense self-regard.

Younger members in these community groups come to realize that they’re not valued new members but instead disposable indentured servants. Since indentured servitude is seldom a personal aspiration, these newcomers quit the group. This leaves the group with indolent older members on the hunt for still more new recruits to dupe persuade into membership.

For successful community groups, the goal should be a few aged members advising and mentoring many more younger members who are given prominence and genuine responsibility. For unsuccessful community groups, it’s the opposite: many aged members hogging prominence and responsibility while relegating new, younger members to scrubbing and scraping.

‘That’s how we’ve always done it’ is the implicit motto of many a failing group.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and Outcome-Driven Argumentation.

This bacteria could help us understand the origins of life:

This bacterium can survive pretty much anything…but could it have survived an asteroid impact? New research says, ‘maybe.’