Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 6:44 AM and sunset 5:32 PM for 10h 47m 21sof daytime. The moon is new with 0.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1954, the Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
LANSING, Mich. — Republicans here, reeling from a midterm election rout that many blamed on the influence of former president Donald Trump, respondedSaturdayby spurning the former president’s choice for state party chair — and choosing someone even more extreme.
Kristina Karamo, who refused to concede her 14-point loss for secretary of state in 2022, beat former attorney general candidate Matt DePerno, who had Trump’s endorsement, in three rounds of contentious voting. The chaotic 11-hour convention, featuring a rowdy standoff over voting procedures and 10 candidates who all ran under a pro-Trump banner, left no doubt that the bulk of the party’s activists in thiskey battleground state remain firmly committed to election denial and showed no interest in moderating their message to appeal to the political center.
“Conceding to a fraudulent person is agreeing with the fraud, which I will not do,” Karamo said to cheers in her campaign speech on Saturday.
Trump’s a legally challenged, politically stumbling,sluggish wreck. He’ll lose to Biden or any other Democrat in 2024. And yet, what he has brought to the heart of GOP politics will not abate. SeeMan and Movement. On the contrary, the extremism he encouraged will grow only stronger within the Republican Party.
The only question is how leading conservative populists will present themselves before taking office. Overtly autocratic like DeSantis, or platitudinous until taking power like stealthy conservative populists across the country?
Once in, they’ll carry on with their 21st century version of a kulturkampf just the same.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 38. Sunrise is 6:46 AM and sunset 5:30 PM for 10h 44m 33sof daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Meet Karen Jacobsen, a voiceover artist from Queensland Australia, who has one of the most recognizable voices in the world. As the original voice of GPS, she’s helped billions of us to reach our destination. Back in 2002, she recorded more than 50 hours of audio for the first ever GPS voice system, including 168 versions of the word “approximately.”
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 25. Sunrise is 6:47 AM and sunset 5:29 PM for 10h 41m 48sof daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 10.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1801, a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
Two weeks ago, FREE WHITEWATER recounted the tale of Bruno, a shelter cat who was returned to the shelter for being ‘too affectionate.’ Bruno was later adopted by another family for whom his disposition proved more agreeable.
Thursday in Whitewater will be snowy with a high of 29. Sunrise is 6:49 AM and sunset 5:28 PM for 10h 39m 03sof daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority is scheduled to meet at 5:30 PM.
We live in a time where one is urged, where everyone is urged, to be empathetic. Some of us were born in an earlier time, when there was a plain distinction between sympathy and empathy. Of that distinction: while to be sympathetic was to show concern for others, to be empathetic was to feel the feelings of others. Under this distinction, while one might have remorse even for an adversary’s misfortunes (accidents, illnesses, etc.), one would not feel an adversary’s feelings (of domination, bigotry, etc.).
This useful distinction runs through this libertarian blogger’s outlook. One can and should have sympathy even for the reprehensible without sharing the cravings and appetites that make them reprehensible. (Empathy carries a burden; it’s no easy condition. It requires strength of mind.)
As it turns out, this distinction has been commonly abandoned. Some feel that expressing sympathy is condescending, and that a true sharing of others’ feelings is the proper expression of one’s humanity. Those who have abandoned sympathy for empathy on this ground are mistaken. One can care for others, even the malevolent, without sharing their dark thoughts.
Some others, including many populists, have evidently abandoned the distinction between sympathy and empathy because they have neither. They luxuriate in the infliction of emotional or physical injury on others. Adam Serwer is right about these types: for them, Cruelty is the Point.
To rationalize their conduct, or foolishly to trust them, is to place oneself at a disadvantage. Why these populists are the way they are matters less than recognizing their malevolence.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 6:50 AM and sunset 5:27 PM for 10h 36m 19sof daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 30.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1862, Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd attack General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces besieging Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Unable to break the fort’s encirclement, the Confederates surrender the following day.
Yesterday’s post offered observations on conservative populism, and today’s post has a bit more. Not all conservatives are the same, but they different in disposition, knowledge, and ambition, not intelligence. (Almost all people, of whatever politics, are sharp; society would not function otherwise.) The traditional conservatives feel it’s indecorous to tantrum, and the transactional conservatives scheme quietly for one monetary gain or another.
Among the conservative populists of Whitewater (and other places) there is also a difference between the behavior of men and women in that faction. For the most part, excepting someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, women among the populists do better at controlling themselves in public than men of that ideology.
Indeed, many women among the conservative populists are shrewd enough to describe themselves, and present themselves, cautiously despite their exclusionary ideology. They seem more reasonable than they are. These women are a backwards version of Madame Defarge: strident once in office, but more demure beforehand, knitting quietly (but no more).
The men among the conservative populists aren’t subtle: they quickly slip into dominance-and-submission rituals, or into false (and ludicrous) claims of expertise or insight they do not have. They look maladjusted to anyone outside their ranks, and so it’s hard for them to win over anyone not already among their number. (They also assume everyone should behave as they do, and so they do not understand stoicism, forbearance, or patience as virtues. They don’t grasp that in difficult circumstances, a good maxim is the hotter the temperature, the colder the man.)
Among the men of conservative populism, there’s often a moment of self-sabotage, when they act out, lose their cool, and have public conniptions. SeeWho Rampaged Better?Even if they start with an olive branch, any slight they perceive along the way causes them to substitute poison ivy.
So many of these big, bad men reveal themselves as though no more than insecure children.
Valentine’s Day in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:52 AM and sunset 5:25 PM for 10h 33m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 40.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
Now, Whitewater — don’t let showers dampen your spirits. There’s romance in the rain.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.
Populism is a faction that falsely describes itself as a majority, and seeks to demonize contrary views as illegitimate. SeeDefining Populism. America has populists of the left and right, but Whitewater has only conservative populists. This city has a small, obsessive faction of easily-offended conservative populists. Whining about masks, lying about vaccines, looking to ban speech they don’t like, they’re mostly thin-skinned Facebook trolls. They often make mistakes of Identifying Types and Spotting Issues.See generallyThe Kinds of Conservatives in Whitewater.
They practice a dominance-and-submission ritual, but badgering, head-shaking, hands-in-air, with squeals of what? what? what?!! is less domination than confirmation that they lack mature stoicism. (An earlier generation of conservatives would have rightly recommended remedial programming for these populists.)
Note well 1: If there’s ever been proof that we’ve failed as a nation in K-12 education, that proof is to be found among the conservative populists. These native-born Americans read little, grasp less, and express themselves poorly as a consequence. A solid secondary school education should prepare someone to write well. College should not be — and is not — necessary preparation for speaking and writing to one’s fellow residents. Our forefathers did well with less than these contemporary Americans have. A native-born man or woman should be able to express himself or herself properly in the English language on the first draft.
A motto for the day — wake up, wash up, read up.
Note well 2 : Conservative populists may be objectionable in ideology and expression, but their lawful speech should not be banned or restricted.
Consider, as Jennifer Rubin ably describes, the latest national controversy from the conservative populists:
MAGA Republicans had a conniption fit on Sunday as they witnessed the Super Bowl pregame show include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes called the Black national anthem, alongside the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) howled on Twitter, “America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness.” Similarly, the campaign for former Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake tweeted that she is “against the idea of a ‘black National Anthem’ for the same reason she’s against a ‘white National Anthem.’ She subscribes to the idea of ‘one Nation, under God.’”
This is ridiculous. The pregame show’s announcers referred to the song by its formal title, not as a national anthem. And its words are deeply inspirational and patriotic:
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
The song never even mentions race. And it’s not as if the song is new to NFL games.
It’s constant grievance from people who paradoxically claim strength while whining.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:53 AM and sunset 5:24 PM for 10h 30m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 51.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Unified School Board holds a legislative breakfast at 8 AM, and Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.
Note for the school district: a healthful breakfast begins with a low-salt and low-gerrymandering diet.
Just hours after airspace over Lake Michigan was closed, Madison-based military jets shot down an object over Lake Huron, officials said Sunday.
It’s the third “object” shot down in as many days, following incidents in Alaska and Canada, and the fourth since the downing of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina Feb. 4.
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The object had been flying at about 20,000 feet over Lake Huron in a path and altitude that raised concerns about it being a hazard to civilian aviation, according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
Officials told the Associated Press that President Biden ordered the object shot down and that it was believed to be the same one tracked over Montana Saturday and monitored by the government beginning the night before.
Madison-based U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets downed the object on Sunday. “The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery,” according to a release from the U.S. Department of Defense.
The object landed in Lake Huron about 15 nautical miles from shore.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:54 AM and sunset 5:23 PM for 10h 28m 14s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.
Whitewater could have these robots, too. ATVs and UTVs are good transportation options for Whitewater, but we can expand yet further. Closer to home, Madison has delivery robots:
What’s the matter, all you smooth-talking heels development gurus?
You gentlemen don’t look like you’re getting any younger. Here’s your chance, finally, to develop something useful.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 43. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 5:21 PM for 10h 25m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1812, Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of “gerrymandering” for the first time.
Trump has called Foxconn in Wisconsin the ‘eighth wonder of the world,’ and so one can surmise that he considered a world wonder includes allegations of stealing from employees. Honest to goodness, what a dog-crap company. (Most companies are never accused of wage theft.)
A new lawsuit claims employees working for Foxconn at its Mount Pleasant facility were underpaid because the company routinely shaved time off timesheets.
The federal class action lawsuit was filed this week by Scotty Allen, a former employee of FII USA, Inc., or Foxconn Industrial Internet U.S.A. The lawsuit alleges Allen was fired because he complained to his bosses that the company was changing the “clock in” and “clock out” times for him and other employees.
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Foxconn initially planned to invest $10 billion on a large flat-screen manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant and employ 13,000 people. Those plans never came to fruition, and a far smaller manufacturing facility now operates on the site.
A person of normal ability should have seen from the beginning that Foxconn in Wisconsin’s entire premise was dodgy. One might say, confidently, even mega, ultra, uber dodgy. In Whitewater, the ‘Greater’ Whitewater Committee (a business lobby) once hosted a state employee flacking for the project during the Walker Administration. No one ever made a place greater with lesser ideas.
Foxconn was a dumb idea when the project was proposed, when it began, and ever since.
FREE WHITEWATER has an entire category dedicated to the Foxconn fiasco.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 29. Sunrise is 6:57 AM and sunset 5:20 PM for 10h 22m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
2.10.2022:
2.10.2023:
The vast Russian dictatorship was so certain of itself a year ago…
Tuesday, February 14th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Tár @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Biography/Drama/Music
Rated R (Language, brief nudity); 2 hours, 38 minutes (2022)
Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), the principal conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic, is one of the most respected artists in the world. She has composed music for stage, film and television. What happens when a world renowned artist becomes overwhelmed by fame, responsibilities, society and her own personal expectations?
Nominated for Golden Globe Best Film, Screenplay and Actress.
