FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread, Economy, Tariffs, Trump

Daily Bread for 7.24.26: A Bad Economic Outlook Gets Worse

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:38 and sunset is 8:24 for 14 hours 46 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 78.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1935, the Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109 °F in Chicago and 104 °F in Milwaukee.

A troubled economic outlook will soon be made worse:

Tariffs could exacerbate the affordability crunch, a chief concern for voters heading into the midterm elections. The Section 301 duties, which cover 99.4 percent of U.S. imports, are expected to raise the effective tariff rate paid by U.S. importers, according to the Yale Budget Lab, and sap the spending power of households and companies.

Exemptions on imports of certain foods, fuel and fertilizer could ease the burden somewhat. But the new tariffs, plus the return of $100-a-barrel oil (more on that below), risk reigniting inflation fears.

That could put central banks in a bind. The Fed meets next week and is expected to keep interest rates on hold. But traders now see a September hike as highly probable, a move that would most likely rankle Trump.

The bond market looks spooked. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a rate that underpins most commercial loans, topped 4.7 percent on Thursday. That’s helped push the 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate to its highest level of the year, a move that could chill the housing market.

The new tariffs are raising uncertainty for businesses. Trump is expected to unveil new duties on countries in Europe and Asia in the coming months, arguing that they are necessary to combat unfair trade practices.

War was already weakening the global economy. Now, a new tariff barrage “will pile on the misery,” Olu Sonola, the head of U.S. economics at Fitch Ratings, told The Times.

See Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Brian O’Keefe, Ian Mount, Vivienne Walt, and Nancy Scola, Trump’s Renewed Trade War Risks Dealing a Fresh Economic Blow (‘Households and businesses were already contending with an affordability crunch. A new round of tariffs could inflict more pain’), New York Times, July 24, 2026.

If Trump is looking for an even more destructive economic policy, he’ll be reduced to sticking his finger in an electrical socket.

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Spanish wildfires force elderly and animals to evacuate in Madrid region:

Spain’s government declared a national emergency on Friday after multiple wildfires forced the evacuation of some 10,000 people in the central region of Madrid.

Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Toxic Positivity, Wisconsin, WisDems

Daily Bread for 7.23.26: A News Headline for Our Time

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:37 and sunset is 8:24 for 14 hours 47 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 70 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1829, inventor William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.

Americans are an optimistic people, and yet among some of us optimism simply goes too far:

That combination of optimism (he can win) and optimism that goes too far (enough voters will learn about him) nicely summarizes the situation for about half of the candidates in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Corrinne Hess writes of Brennan’s situation:

If Brennan was hoping for party leaders to rally around his campaign overnight, it didn’t happen. Instead, Rodriguez dropped out, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped back in, and Evers endorsed Crowley over Brennan and others who had worked for the governor.

[…]

[Director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Barry] Burden said because Brennan has never been elected to public office, he is largely unknown across the state. But because of his career, he’s very well known to people in politics and Democratic insiders. He’s also the brother-in-law of Kevin Conroy, the founder of Exact Sciences.

See Corrinne Hess, Democrat Joel Brennan says he can win the governor’s race — if voters get to know him, Wisconsin Public Radio, July 23, 2026.

Seems a bit late in the game to build familiarity with hundreds of thousands of voters (the primary is in nineteen days), but hope springs eternal.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

If Wisconsin politics is in flux, at least we don’t yet have bears on the rampage:

The Wall Street Journal reports on the ursine invasion of Lake Tahoe:

Black bears are on a rampage across America, riding a population rebound driven in part by greater protection of the species. Around small cities and suburbs, the predators follow their keen sense of smell to dumpsters, cars and homes. In Gatlinburg, Tenn., police in May freed a bear that locked itself in a hotel restroom. A contractor in Steamboat Springs, Colo., opened his truck door in June to find a bear cub devouring his lunch.

[…]

An estimated 60,000 roam California alone, triple the number in the 1990s. Few places see more activity than the turquoise shores of Lake Tahoe.

South Lake Tahoe police have received 174 bear calls this year through Wednesday, compared with 97 over the same period in 2025. The reports range from brazen burglaries to visitors nervous about a bear wandering by.

Mike Webb cut short a family fishing outing last week after a 200-pounder approached, minutes after Webb’s 11-year-old son caught something. “I was relieved the bear didn’t notice, otherwise we could have had a situation on our hands,” said Webb, 38.

It was a wise move, as the same bear lunged at other visitors minutes later.

See Jim Carlton, Bears Are Running Amok in Lake Tahoe and Causing Chaos Among Locals, Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2026.

Japan has faced bear attacks and responded only with futile measures that, most likely, the bears themselves have understandably derided. Americans are simply going to have to do more.

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Local Government, Politics

Daily Bread for 7.22.26: True Popularity’s Not So Common in These Parts

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 5:33 and sunset is 8:25 for 14 hours 49 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 60.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4 PM.

On this day in 1933, aviator Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

There was a moment during the Whitewater Common Council meeting last night when a resident mentioned that a police-funding referendum in 2025 passed with 54 percent of the vote. That’s correct, but it’s also telling. Fifty-four percent is hardly a resounding victory, especially for public safety. (It’s also true that some of the most critical views on policing, especially on funding, come from right-leaning voters.)

It’s simply the case that few departments, institutions, or organizations in the city (or other cities) are resoundingly popular. Resounding popularity is to be found elsewhere: puppies, Christmas, and properly roasted coffee beans.

It’s also true that public comments during council meetings often involve the same few people, many of them over fifty. They represent smaller factions in a city more fragmented than during the last generation. Within political ideologies of both the left and right, younger voters (under fifty) also hold views far different from those of older voters otherwise identified as holding the same ideology.

Some of those speaking present themselves as though they represent large coalitions in the city, but there are no large coalitions left in the city. That was thirty years ago, and thirty years ago isn’t coming back.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Louvre Museum reopens gallery after jewelry heist:

The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, reopened its Apollo Gallery to visitors on July 22, nine months after a spectacular theft of French Crown Jewels worth an estimated $102 million. The gallery reopened without the jewels that once formed its main attraction. Those pieces, including the famed Regent Diamond, will eventually be displayed in a separate high-security area of the museum, Louvre director Christophe Leribault said.

Business, City, Daily Bread, Development, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.21.26: Vacancy Is the Worst Business

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:35 and sunset is 8:26 for 14 hours 51 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 51 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1904, Louis Rigolly becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brillié in Ostend, Belgium.

Louis Rigolly in the car in which he first exceeded 100 mph in 1904

It’s natural when people hear about a business that might open at a location to offer their own suggestions. They’ll say what they’d prefer (and where they’d prefer it).

In Whitewater, in every other community in our area, and in most communities anywhere, it’s never so easy as expressing social media preferences. Only a few business opportunities come along, and the alternative is the worse prospect: of nothing coming along at all.

When nothing is good enough, nothing comes along. Vacancy is the worst business.

Photo by Nolan Issac on Unsplash.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Rescued bird is ‘likely’ one of Big Bear Valley’s famous eagles:

The eagle was transferred to a “specialized rehabilitation facility” after LA County Parks’ San Dimas Raptor Rescue Team helped stabilize it.

Business, Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, Legislation, Legislature, Speaker Vos, State Government, Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.20.26: The Shifting Politics on Data Centers

by  • 

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:34 and sunset is 8:27 for 14 hours 53 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 41.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board – Food Pantry Subcommittee meets at noon and the Library Board at 6:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11‘s crew successfully makes the first human landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility.

Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on the Moon (mission time: 110:10:33). His fingertips are visible on the far side of his faceplate. Note the well-defined footprints in the foreground. Buzz is facing up-Sun. There is a reflection of the Sun in his visor. At the bottom of Buzz’s faceplate, note the white ‘rim’ which is slightly separated from his neckring. This ‘rim’ is the bottom of his gold visor, which he has pulled down. We can see the LEC straps hanging down inside of the ladder strut. In the foreground, we can see the foot-grabbing loops in the TV cable. The double crater under Neil’s LM window is just beyond the LM shadow.

The politics of data center construction have shifted greatly over these last few years. While this libertarian blogger has argued for the minimum set of state regulations to make data center policy uniform across Wisconsin, that’s a minority position. Indeed, it’s now so evidently a minority position that the Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany has forgotten (or is lying) about legislation passed as recently as the 2023-2025 legislative session that offered tax breaks for data centers:

A 2023-25 budget provision granting a sales tax exemption to data centers was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by the Democratic governor in July 2023. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in March that the tax break will cost the state more than $2 billion in sales tax revenue, mostly from massive data centers in Beaver Dam, Port Washington and Mount Pleasant. When the budget was approved in July 2023, hyperscale data centers were so new the fiscal bureau didn’t estimate how much an exemption would affect state tax collections should they be built.

While the high cost has drawn scrutiny, the incentive was originally designed to drive economic growth. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states offer tax incentives on data centers.

See Audrey Lopez-Stane, Was a Wisconsin data centers tax break put in place solely by Gov. Tony Evers?, Wisconsin Watch, July 20, 2026.

Now, Tiffany wants to assign all the responsibility for data center tax breaks to Gov. Evers. Democrat Evers could not have signed tax-break legislation if the Republican-controlled legislature had not passed that legislation.

It’s worth noting that I support those tax breaks just as I support the minimum set of statewide regulations on data centers (so that each community can either build or refrain as it wishes).

The waxing statewide view is, however, hostile to data centers and rapidly growing more so. It’s so hostile that it’s caused Tiffany either to forget or deceptively to abandon his own party’s past.

(Note well, for those few in Whitewater or elsewhere who think Speaker Robin Vos will have an ongoing influence: Vos’s influence fades by the hour. Leaders in both parties are even now consigning Vos to the faded newsprint and the brittle pages of yesterday’s news.)

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Well done, Spain:

Animals, Birds, Conservation, Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.19.26: Bird Banding at the Hemlock Draw Preserve

by  • 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:33 and sunset is 8:28 for 14 hours 55 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 31.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 64, the Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city.

Trained and licensed bird banders make tracking migratory birds possible. Several beautiful species were banded at The Nature Conservancy’s Hemlock Draw Preserve last month:

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Dark Energy Camera Reveals a Real-Life ‘Starry Night’ in Space:

The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the NSF Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope captured an amazing view of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud. “The scene contains glowing nebulae, dark dust lanes, and newborn stars, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night,” according to NOIRLab.

Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 7.18.26: A Large Wisconsin Gubernatorial Field Is Nothing New

by  • 

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:32 and sunset is 8:29 for 14 hours 57 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 25 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1968,  Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.

There are several candidates for Wisconsin governor (mostly among Democrats, but even the Republicans nominally have more than one, although Tiffany is the only one who matters). For the WisDems, this is nothing new:

If the 2026 Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor seems large, 2018 certainly had it beat.

That year, 10 names were on the Democratic primary ballot, plus an 11th write-in candidate, according to results of the 2018 partisan primary kept by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Two Republican candidates and two additional write-ins appeared on the 2018 GOP primary ballot. 

The Aug. 11, 2026, primary ballot includes seven Democrats and two Republicans.

In both years, a few candidates dropped out of the race, but their names remained on the ballot due to approval deadlines. 

As of July 14, that includes Democrats Missy Hughes and David Crowley. So, only five of the Democrats on the Aug. 11 ballot are still campaigning.

In 2018, two higher-profile candidates had also dropped out by late June: Andy Gronik and Dana Wachs, though both appeared on the ballot.

Hope Karnopp, Did more Democrats run for Wisconsin governor in 2018 than in 2026?, Wisconsin Watch, July 16, 2026.

Even now, the field is flux: Crowley, it turns out, may return to campaigning.

Perhaps, for partisans, all this is stressful — which person will their party nominate?

If, by contrast, you are part of a larger, supportive coalition yet not a Democrat (as I am not), then your outlook may be different. (At least, this libertarian blogger’s outlook is different.) One fights with the candidate that one has, and although I will vote in the partisan primary, it’s mostly Democrats who will decide their nominee. One hopes they’ll pick their strongest remaining candidate for the fall, although that’s not certain. It’s not even probable, candidly.

One carries on, regardless, as part of a broader coalition. Any Democrat remaining in the race, even the least favorable choice for the fall, would be better than Trump’s man for Wisconsin.

Never means never.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Naked mole-rat queens’ secret sauce for domination:

Naked mole-rats are…weird, to say the least. Now scientists may have solved the long-standing mystery of how their unique social structure is maintained, and the answer is a surprisingly simple and commonplace chemical. It’s used in the production of cosmetics and plastics (it’s the active ingredient in many head lice treatments) and also seems to be the key to maintaining a queen’s place in naked mole-rat colonies.

City, Culture, Daily Bread, Local Government

Daily Bread for 7.17.26: Civic Participation Has Been Low in Many Communities for Many Years

by  • 

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with scattered afternoon thundershowers and a high of 90. Sunrise is 5:31 and sunset is 8:29 for 14 hours 58 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 13.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1821, the Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.

A resident often finds significant and interesting work from the municipal administration in the Whitewater Common Council’s consent agenda. A memo among the consent agenda items for the July 21 council meeting addresses participation on city boards and commissions. See Memorandum from Becky Magestro, Chief of Staff, City of Whitewater, to Whitewater Common Council, Board and Commission Resignations and Volunteer Recruitment (July 21, 2026). However regrettable, it has been true for many years that in Whitewater (and cities across this country) civic participation has often been low.

This topic of low participation, where the city relies on a small number of the same people to fill commission and board vacancies, was broached in Whitewater nearly a decade ago. When the city manager at that time first mentioned the problem publicly, this libertarian blogger was surprised: Old Whitewater disfavored discussions that might call into question the culture of the city. Admittedly, Old Whitewater’s decline as a force was already evident, and while its many mistakes were undeniable, it still had some kick to it. This problem, however, was not unique to Whitewater then or now.

I’ll not suggest that I have an adequate answer. It is plainly, however, a longstanding and common affliction across our area and beyond. In this, Whitewater is not alone and is now managing civic participation as well as anyone nearby.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Landslide in Chongqing:

An unknown number of people were buried after a landslide struck a county in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, causing multiple residential buildings downhill to collapse, according to state media. A dashcam video captured the moment a section of hillside collapsed onto homes and businesses below, sending debris across the road and forcing passing cars to stop.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: Not All Cat Grooming Is a Friendly Gesture

by  • 

Sometimes cats groom each other for friendly reasons … but sometimes not:

Morgane Van Belle, another cat behavioral scientist at Ghent University and the study’s lead author, was observing her own cats, Fabio and Giovanni, interacting over a favorite napping spot in the sun and noticed something.

“I saw these weird grooming patterns in my own cats where I thought, This is not super friendly at all,” she said. “Sometimes one cat would lay on the blanket near the window and the other cat would come up and start licking it — but in an annoying way.” The interaction would induce the licked cat to get up and forfeit the sunny spot, she said.

To check whether this behavior was more widespread, Ms. Van Belle and her colleagues looked at 53 households across Europe with two or more cats. After telling the pet owners what to look for, the researchers had them submit videos of their cats’ interactions. The scientists then randomly selected a submission from each participant and used statistical analyses to tease apart the hidden nuance in cat-licking behavior.

[…]

The results revealed two things. The first was consistent with typical grooming behavior: The cats licked each other on the head, neck or ears. In these videos, the cats were much more likely to mimic each other’s body postures, either cuddling together or sitting next to one another before and after the grooming. The licks were clearly friendly gestures.

The other side of the cat-licking coin revealed something more in line with bullying. A subset of the videos showed that licking often preceded conflict. These interactions were defined by differing body postures, where one cat might stand and lick the other sitting cat. The aggressive licks were followed by signs of stress in the licked cat, including staring, yowling, rotating the ears, licking the lips or swiping at the other cat. The results were inconsistent with the prior conception of cat allogrooming.

See Taylor Mitchell Brown, Your Cat Is Being Nice? Think Again (A new study finds that sometimes cats groom each other specifically to be annoying), New York Times, July 10, 2025.

Climate, Daily Bread, Weather, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.16.26: Wisconsin Under Smoky Skies

by  • 

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 90. Sunrise is 5:30 and sunset is 8:30 for 15 hours of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is destroyed in a head-on collision with Jupiter.

Brown spots mark impact sites on Jupiter‘s southern hemisphere. Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team and NASA.

All of Wisconsin is under smoky skies, and northern Wisconsin most of all:

Wildfire smoke from fires blazing in Canada and Minnesota will blanket much of Wisconsin this week, bringing hazardous air quality to northern Wisconsin and statewide effects.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued an air quality advisory Tuesday that runs through 11 a.m. Thursday, which could be extended.

[…]

Climate change is driving heat and drought that have set the stage for wildfires to burn. Wildfires in Canada have worsened as the nation has seen warmer and shorter winters that have enhanced drought conditions, said Amanda Latham, climate outreach specialist with the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. 

“When we have these really, really dry conditions, and we also start to introduce the warmer conditions during the summer, that really expands the wildfire season,” Latham said. “Oftentimes, it makes it a lot worse than what we’ve seen in historic records.”

In Canada, around 835 fires are burning with nearly 3,500 so far this year that have consumed around 4.7 million acres. The number of fires is above the 10-year average.

A Minnesota Star Tribune analysis found wildfire activity has increased in Minnesota almost every season since 1992, including a tenfold increase in the average number of fires during summer and fall.

See Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin sees hazardous levels of pollution as fires burn in Canada and Minnesota (‘Wisconsin sees unhealthy air as 17 fires burn in northern Minnesota, including 3 in the Boundary Waters’), Wisconsin Public Radio, July 15, 2026.

Our weather has changed because our climate has changed.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Gov. Evers will appeal the Trump adminstration’s denial of assistance to four counties hit by April storms. There is a pattern of delay and rejection. Trump delays and rejects disaster aid for Democratic states at higher rates, AP finds:

When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks — or even months — to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn’t support President Donald Trump, chances are greater that aid will be denied.

Authoritarian Populism, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Musk, Never Trump, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.15.26: Musk’s 2025 Wisconsin Election Payments Bring Criminal Referral

by  • 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 94. Sunrise is 5:30 and sunset is 8:31 for 15 hours 1 minute of daylight. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

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

On this day in 1916, in Seattle, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

In the first few months of 2025, after Trump’s second inauguration, it seemed to many as though Trumpism and the MAGA movement were America’s foreseeable future. Those of us in opposition, including those of us who are Never Trump, knew that those grandiose claims of an enduring future were false, would prove transitory and, in retrospect, delusional. And look, and look — those heady days of Trumpism now seem as though they were a hundred years ago.

And yet, and yet — at the time, Trump and his then-allies thought and acted as though they were free from the practical and moral constraints present across centuries of American history:

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has referred two complaints against billionaire Elon Musk to the Brown County district attorney’s office, saying it found “probable cause” to believe Musk broke state election bribery laws last year.

Two letters sent to Musk and Wisconsin residents who filed the initial complaints state that the elections commission’s bipartisan board voted 5-1 last week on a motion finding probable cause that Musk violated the state’s election bribery statute, “by making a social media post that offered one million dollars to individuals who voted in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election in order to induce them to vote in that election.”

The actual complaints themselves are not publicly accessible under state law.

Musk was heavily involved in backing former Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s campaign against current liberal Justice Susan Crawford. Musk and groups connected to him gave more than $20 million to support Schimel’s campaign and offered $100 payments to residents who signed a petition opposing “activist judges.” Musk also said he gave people in Green Bay and Eau Claire $1 million for signing the petition. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission letter, however, appears to focus on a specific post from Musk to his social media platform X on March 27, 2025, in which he announced he would “give a talk in Wisconsin” at an event where only “those who have voted in the Supreme Court election” would be allowed in.

“I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” said Musk.

[…]

He deleted the post the next day and replaced it with another stating that people who signed his petition “in opposition to activist judges” would be allowed in and the million-dollar payments were no longer just for those who voted.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul tried to stop Musk’s million-dollar giveaway, but his lawsuit was dismissed by a county circuit court, state appeals court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. At the event, held in Green Bay on March 30, 2025, Musk handed out two large checks for a million dollars. One of them went to the state chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans. 

With the elections commission’s referrals, it’s up to Republican Brown County District Attorney David Lasee to decide whether or not to file criminal charges.

See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Elections Commission says Elon Musk likely violated bribery law, Wisconsin Public Radio, July 15, 2026.

I’ll not be waiting for Brown County’s district attorney to take action. It seems unlikely that there will be any prosecution of Musk for his 2025 actions.

Note, however, how distant Musk’s Wisconsin intervention feels now. In Wisconsin Supreme Court races, Crawford defeated Schimel easily in 2025, and Taylor defeated Lazar easily in 2026.

Tariffs, bloated federal legislation, concealment of Epstein’s vast network, murders in our streets, and wars in Venezuela and Iran have reminded a majority of our people what Trumpism consists in equal measures impracticality and moral transgression.

Musk himself is likely to escape justice in Wisconsin, but a far harsher sentence — public rejection — builds against the movement Musk so ludicrously promoted in the winter and spring of 2025.

This long political conflict is not over: worse is yet to come, but whatever comes will, despite the difficulty, be overcome.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

A headline for our time: ‘Can We Lose the Same War Twice? With Trump, Anything’s Possible.’ U.S. reimposes Iran blockade after attacks on ships in Strait of Hormuz:

The U.S. military early Wednesday reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports over Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sparking new strikes on nations hosting U.S. forces as an interim deal to end the war further unraveled.

Climate, Daily Bread, Science/Nature, Weather, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.14.26: Tornado Alley Moves Toward the Midwest

by  • 

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 95. Sunrise is 5:29 and sunset is 8:32 for 15 hours 3 minutes of daylight. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Innovation Center Advisory Panel meets at 8:30 AM and the Public Works Committee at 5 PM.

On this day in 1789, French revolutionaries storm the Bastille.

We’re closer to Tornado Alley than we once were as that traditional area for storms shifts toward the Midwest:

The U.S. has had a busy tornado season so far, and the majority of the storms are blasting through the Midwest, east of what’s traditionally thought of as Tornado Alley.

Wisconsin has seen a higher than average number of tornadoes so far this year, according to data from the National Weather Service.

“It’s been an active tornado year so far across Wisconsin with 39 documented tornadoes, which ties it with (2025) for the sixth most in an entire year since 1950,” the NWS wrote in an update released Monday.

The NWS says the average number of tornadoes for Wisconsin in a calendar year is 23. In recent years, the state has seen tornado totals around double that number.

Historically, tornadoes have most frequently touched down in the Great Plains, hitting states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, but research has found since 1979 that pattern has been shifting.

“Tornadoes have been happening with less frequency in the Great Plains over the last 40 years,” said Victor Gensini, a professor and director at Northern Illinois University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms. “And they’ve been having greater frequency in places like Illinois and Indiana and Tennessee and portions of the Mid-South and the Midwest.”

See Abigail Bottar, Tornadoes are breaking records in Midwest states as Tornado Alley moves east (With 39 tornadoes so far this year, Wisconsin has already matched last year’s total of tornadoes), Wisconsin Public Radio, July 14, 2026.

_____

Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.

Astronomers find evidence of sugar in the space between stars:

The space between stars in the Milky Way just got a little sweeter for Spanish researchers who’ve found evidence of a sugar which is found in raspberries and self-tanning lotions. The sugar, called erythrulose, lurks in interstellar space, or the space between stars.