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Daily Bread for 11.4.24: In the 43rd District Race, Scott Johnson’s Disqualifying Situation

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:33, and sunset is 4:42, for 10 hours, 9 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 8.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun‘s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

In the 43rd Assembly District, Whitewater resident Brienne Brown is running against Jefferson resident Scott Johnson.

Here is a map of the 43rd Assembly District’s boundaries:

Whitewater, the largest city in the district, is at the northeast corner of the map. Jefferson is in another district.

On April 11th, Scott Johnson published an announcement for his candidacy for the 43rd Assembly seat.

On August 12th, Johnson attended a meeting of the Whitewater Planning Board. At that meeting, Johnson spoke during public comment on a proposed apartment complex on the east side of Whitewater.

Here’s how Johnson began his remarks (with his full remarks available online):

“Good evening. I’m Scott Johnson, I’m not from this local community…”

Johnson does not live in Whitewater, and he does not live anywhere else in the district. It’s lawful to do what Johnson is doing, but it’s irresponsible and selfish.

The proper order for a candidacy goes like this: live in the district, learn about the district, and run only after you have lived here.

This reasonable & responsible sequence applies to Republicans, Democrats, and independents.

All the rest — claims and counterclaims, opposition research and replies — should be secondary and subordinate to a candidate’s residency in this community before he runs for office.

I have always — always — encouraged people to move to Whitewater. Johnson should first sell his out-of-district residence, move here to Whitewater (his best option) or elsewhere in the district (a second-best choice), live here with us, and only then consider a candidacy after living with us.

It’s beautiful here. Whitewater has options for homes and apartments, including among them several senior living facilities.

If Johnson does not believe this district is good enough for a residency-first approach, then this district is too good for Johnson.

No yielding whatever on this fundamental point.

Uncovering a lost mountain metropolis:

An isolated plateau in the highlands of southeastern Uzbekistan in Central Asia, looks like an expanse of rolling hills. But look closer and a shard of pottery or the stony remnant of an ancient wall might hint at an archaeological secret hidden for hundreds of years. Now a team of archaeologists have used drone-mounted LiDAR to virtually peel back the layers of sediment and vegetation. Revealing two ancient cities, much larger than previously imagined, built 2,000 metres above sea level. The finding of these urban centres, called Tashbulak and Tugunbulak, at such high altitudes, may mean that highland areas may have played a more important role in medieval trade than previously thought. Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158…

Daily Bread, Legislature, State Government, Tony Evers, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 10.15.24: Another WISGOP Holdover Appointee

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:09, and sunset is 6:11, for 11 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 94.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 6 PM and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1815,  Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The cold, rigid hand of the WISGOP yet grips Wisconsin. Erik Gunn reports Scott Walker holdover’s labor review board term expired in 2023, but she’s still on panel (‘Evers’ commission nominees haven’t gotten state Senate hearings, confirmation votes’):

Six years after Gov. Scott Walker left office, an official he appointed continues to interpret state laws covering jobless pay, workplace injuries and civil rights.

Georgia Maxwell’s term as one of three members of the Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission (LIRC) expired March 1, 2023, more than 18 months ago. Nevertheless she remains in the seat even though Gov. Tony Evers has appointed her replacement.

Maxwell is following the example of another Walker appointee, Fred Prehn, a Wausau dentist who refused to step down from the Natural Resources Board at the end of his term in May 2021.

As the Wisconsin Examiner reported, Republican leaders in the Legislature held off formally confirming Evers’ appointed successor to Prehn and encouraged the Walker appointee to hang on to his seat. A legal battle led to a landmark state Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 declaring Prehn could remain in the post until the Wisconsin Senate approved his successor.

In response to an interview request Monday, Maxwell said she would not answer questions about her decision and instead referred to the letter she sent Evers the day before her term expired.

In that Feb. 28, 2023 letter, Maxwell cited the Supreme Court ruling in the Prehn case and asserted her belief “in the continuity of work that we do” at the commission.

Consider, from 2018, the will of Wisconsin’s voters:

Via Politico

How ’bout 2022? Here are those results:

Via Politico

And yet, and yet, Walker appointees are still holding over.

No one should be shocked. In 1968, George Romero made a full-length documentary1 about creatures that just won’t go away:

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Launches From Kennedy Space Center (Highlights):

  1. From that film, one of the finest exchanges in cinema history:
    Field Reporter: Are they slow-moving, chief?
    Sheriff McClelland: Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up. ↩︎

Daily Bread, Language, Law, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.4.24: No on Amendment Questions 1 and 2

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:50, and sunset is 8:10, for 14h 19m 39s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1914,  in response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.

Voters will see two questions on the state’s Aug. 13 primary ballot to amend the state constitution, both of which would shift power to direct federal funding from the governor to the Legislature.

Questions written nebulously, and presented to voters on a month of traditionally lower turnout, deserve rejection. Government, and the questions it presents, are meant to be more than semantic trickery.

These are the amendment questions:

QUESTION 1: “Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?”

QUESTION 2: “Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?”

For more information on the amendments, see Michael Keane, Wisconsin Constitutional Amendments, Wisconsin State Law Library. Keane writes:

If a majority of those voting on the ratification question vote “yes,” then the amendment has been ratified and becomes part of the constitution upon certification of the results by the chairperson of the elections commission, unless another date is specified in the amendment. (Wisconsin Statute 7.70(3)(h)).

The two amendments on the ballot in August, dealing with the expenditure of federal funds, were approved by the legislature on first consideration during the 2021 session (2021 Senate Joint Resolution 84; Enrolled Joint Resolution 14); they were approved on second consideration by the 2023 legislature (2023 Assembly Joint Resolution 6; Enrolled Joint Resolution 14). Two questions must be submitted to the vote because two different constitutional revisions are incorporated in the single joint resolution. The Supreme Court has ruled that in such cases, separate questions must be submitted to the people. (State ex rel. Thomson v. Zimmerman, 264 Wis. 644).

It appears that, for the first time, the people will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment at a primary election. All previous constitutional amendments have been submitted to the voters for approval at the non-partisan general (April) election, or the partisan general (November) election. (Wisconsin Blue Book, p. 509-514).

Signs of Ancient Life on Mars? Here’s What We See in This Intriguing Rock:

NASA’s Perseverance rover has made very compelling observations in a Martian rock that, with further study, could prove that life was present on Mars in the distant past – but how can we determine that from a rock, and what do we need to do to confirm it? Morgan Cable, a scientist on the Perseverance team, takes a closer look.

Daily Bread, Ethics, Law, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.28.24: When Wisconsin Public Officials Impede Public Accountability

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:43, and sunset is 8:18, for 14h 35m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 45.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1934, Two killed, 40 hurt in Kohler riot; National Guard occupies town:

On this day, the “model industrial village” of Kohler became an armed camp of National Guard cavalrymen after deadly strike-related rioting. The July 27th violence, which killed two Sheboygan men and injured 40 others, prompted the summoning of 250 Guardsmen to join the 200 special deputy village marshals already present. After striking workers became agitated and began to destroy company property, deputies turned to tear gas, rifles, and shotguns to quell the stone-throwing crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries.

Owner Walter Kohler blamed Communists and outside agitators for the violence, while union leaders blamed Kohler exclusively. Workers at the Kohler plant were demanding better hours, higher wages, and recognition of the American Federation of Labor as their collective bargaining agent. Not settled until 1941, the strike marked the beginning of what was to become a prolonged struggle between the Kohler Company and organized labor in Wisconsin; a second Kohler strike lasted from 1954 to 1965.

On this day in 1996, the remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.

There is a temerity (lit., excessive confidence or boldness) and a perversity (lit., the quality of being contrary to accepted standards and practices) in public officials who fight public accountability. Anya Van Wagtendonk reports Rep. Janel Brandtjen sues state Ethics Commission after campaign finance investigation (‘The complaint aims to fight charges against Brantdjen connected to an alleged 2022 campaign fundraising scheme’):

Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, has filed suit against the Wisconsin Ethics Commission in an effort to halt an investigation into her campaign finance activities from two years ago.

The complaint, filed Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court, argues the commission violated state separation of powers protections when it recommended felony prosecution of Brandtjen.

“WEC is improperly stepping into the shoes of the District Attorney, and the executive branch, in regard to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” the lawsuit reads.

In February, the bipartisan state Ethics Commission found cause for charging Brandtjen and others with campaign finance violations tied to a 2022 primary challenge against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Investigators alleged that Brandtjen coordinated a scheme to bypass donor limits using county GOP offices and a war chest tied to former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

The commission referred the case to local district attorneys, depending on where the alleged violations took place. Brandtjen’s case was referred to the Waukesha County district attorney who, like the other local prosecutors, declined to press charges. The Ethics Commission then referred the charges to Washington County, according to the complaint, where the local DA also did not prosecute.

That opens the door for the commission to refer the charges up to the state Department of Justice.

Brandtjen holds public office while fighting to prevent a public inquiry. Her suit should be dismissed, and the investigation should proceed. She is no private party; an honest public official would welcome public proceedings.

Jasper National Park:

Daily Bread, Elections, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.18.24: Interactive Maps on Wisconsin’s Legislative Primary Races

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:33 and sunset 8:28 for 14h 54m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

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

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

The Wisconsin Examiner has published two interactive maps for Wisconsin’s legislative primary races:

These interactive maps show every candidate listed on primary ballots in August this year as certified by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. They also include additional information about some of the Democratic and Republican primary races as well as information about the most competitive districts identified by a Marquette Law School analysis done by John Johnson, a research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education. In his analysis, Johnson used the results of the 2022 state legislative elections to predict which districts will have close races under the 2024 maps.

….

2024 Wisconsin State Assembly Primary Races (‘Map reflects candidates who will be on the August primary ballots’) [link opens in another window]

2024 Wisconsin State Senate Primary Races (‘Map reflects candidates who will be on the August primary ballots. Odd numbered Senate districts (grey) are not up for election this year’ [link opens in another window]

Wisconsin’s August Partisan Primary is 8.13.24, Wis. Stat. 5.02(12s).

Butterfly Chases Hummingbird at Panama Fruit Feeders:

Watch this quick clip of a butterfly chasing a White-vented Plumeleteer above the platform feeder in Panama. Stay until the end to see a slow-motion replay of the events. It’s unclear exactly what led to this interaction. Butterflies and hummingbirds often compete for the same food sources, and there’s research to suggest both hummingbirds and various insect species will display interspecific territorial behavior near food sources.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Legislation, Legislature, Liberty, State Government, Tony Evers, Voting Rights, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 7.5.24: Wisconsin Supreme Court Restores Absentee Ballot Boxes

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a chance of scattered afternoon showers and a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:23 and sunset 8:35 for 15h 12m 21s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1687, Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

On this day in 1832, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling land” in their pursuit of Black Hawk:

The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk.”On this day in 1832, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog. Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk.

Whitewater’s Independence Holiday celebration continues today at the Cravath Lakefront:

Christman Family Amusements Wrist Band Session: 5 PM to 9 PM
Civic Organization Food Vendors: 4 PM to 11 PM
Live Music at Frawley Ampitheater: 
Cactus Brothers 5 to 7 PM sponsored by TDS
Titan Fun Key (Whitewater band playing ‘70s rock, funk, and blues) 8 PM to 10:30 PM
Family Day Powered by Generac: Free petting zoo, pony rides, camel rides 4 to 8 PM 

This morning, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued rulings restoring absentee ballot boxes (Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Elections Commission), holding unconstitutional specific statutes that placed the power of the executive branch to carry out the law in a committee of the legislature (Tony Evers v. Howard Marklein), and reversing a lower-court decision that allowed recommitment and involuntary medication without actual hearing notice to the subject individual (Waukesha County v. M.A.C.).

All three decisions appear below.

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Italy’s Mount Etna erupting at night:

Italy’s Mount Etna has erupted again, sending out spouts of lava into the night sky. Europe’s most active volcano has become a destination for tourists and volcano enthusiasts looking to catch a glimpse of its frequent activity.

Daily Bread, Elections, Fair Maps, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.31.24: New Representatives for New Legislative Districts

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:26 for 15h 08m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 40.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1790, the United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.

On this day in 1899, two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, crossed paths a second time, in Beaver Dam. The pair had first met eight months before in the Central Hotel in Boscobel and discussed the need for some way to provide Christian support to traveling businessmen. During this second meeting in Beaver Dam the two decided to “get right at it. Start the ball rolling and follow it up.” They invited their professional contacts to an organizational meeting to be held in Janesville on July 1, 1899, at which the organization was formally named and chartered. By 1948, the Gideons had distributed over 15 million bibles world-wide. 

Rich Kremer reports Nearly half of Wisconsin Legislature won’t run in old districts as new maps shake up state politics (‘At least 44 state representatives and senators will run in new districts under maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers and passed by Republicans’):

As the dust settles from the past year’s redistricting battles in Wisconsin, the state Legislature is undergoing a shakeup, with nearly half of all state lawmakers having announced they won’t run in their old districts. 

All told, at least 61 members of the state Assembly and Senate won’t run again in their old districts. Of those, 41 are Republicans and 20 are Democrats.

In the Assembly alone, 40 representatives — more than a third of the chamber —have either filed to run for new seats in the Legislature or say they plan on it. 

Another 16 state lawmakers, including eight Democrats and eight Republicans, have announced plans to leave the Legislature entirely. 

This is all to the good — Wisconsin could use a new legislature.

Back from the brink, whooping cranes inspire awe but still need help:

Daily Bread, Elections, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.9.24: Competitive Legislative Races Return to Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 60. Sunrise is 6:20 and sunset 7:31 for 13h 10m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1860, on his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.

Wisconsin has new legislative maps, and although maps do not elect candiates, there’s reason to believe that the extreme gerrymandering begun in the Walker years will give way to a more representative set of legislative districts. In the New York Times, Julie Bosman reports (open link) Fierce Races Loom With Wisconsin’s New Political Maps (‘The new legislative maps reflect a near split between Republican- and Democratic-leaning districts. For more than a decade, earlier maps had helped Republicans hold power’: 

Yee Leng Xiong, a 29-year-old nonprofit executive, has been an elected official in Wisconsin since he was a teenager. From a north central county known for ginseng farming and downhill skiing, he has served on the local school board, the Marathon County Board and the village board of trustees in Weston, population 15,000.

But he is a Democrat, and running for a seat in the State Legislature in a solidly Republican district had always seemed a little outlandish.

Until this year.

In February, new legislative maps in Wisconsin were signed into law after more than a decade of partisan wrangling and legal battles. The new maps undid the gerrymander that had helped Republicans keep control of both state legislative chambers since 2012. The 85th Assembly District in Marathon County, where Mr. Xiong lives, is no longer a Republican-leaning seat: It is a tossup.

“This idea came to reality when the maps changed,” Mr. Xiong said in an interview last month.

….

The state’s residents have long been a close mix of Democrats and Republicans, which makes Wisconsin a crucial swing state in presidential elections and means statewide races are often fiercely contested. The reshaping of the maps is expected to suddenly return many legislative races to the realm of true competition as well.

After more than a decade of languishing in the minority in the State Legislature, Democrats are now in a position to vie for political power with the Republicans, who currently hold about two-thirds of the seats in both the Senate and the Assembly.

Competitive races do not assure outcomes — they are, after all, competitive not prohibitive races. And yet, and yet, competitive races can work their will on candidates, forcing them (if they wish to win) to take positions acceptable to the more balanced electorates in their districts.

It’s been a long time since most WISGOP legislative candidates had to compete earnestly in their districts. They’re going to have to learn compromise and persuasion all over again.

Not so easy for those legislators who’ve lived a troll’s life for a decade.

One of the oldest forms of barbecue uses an underground oven called a pib:

Crapweasels, Daily Bread, Elections, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Legislation, Legislature, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.14.24: Speaker Vos Rushes While the Rushing is Good

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 Good morning.

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset 5:25 for 10h 32m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 28.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2018, a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries.

Baylor Spears reports Legislature adopts Evers’s maps in second attempt to choose before state Supreme Court (‘Most Democrats vote no, saying they don’t trust Republicans’):

Six parties submitted maps to be considered and consultants recently said that the two sets of legislative maps submitted by Republican lawmakers and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) amounted to more partisan gerrymandering.

The consultants did not pick a preferred map, but said the other maps, including Evers’ submission, were “nearly indistinguishable.” Those proposals have been projected to reduce Republican control of the Legislature from its current near-supermajority status 

Republicans lawmakers have found Evers’ maps, which would likely keep a Republican majority, although a smaller one, in the Legislature, preferable to the other submissions before the state Supreme Court. 

“Republicans were not stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Sen. Van Wannggard (R-Racine) said in a statement about the vote. “It was a matter of choosing to be stabbed, shot, poisoned or led to the guillotine. We chose to be stabbed, so we can live to fight another day.” 

….

Vos, who was the only representative to speak during the floor session, also rejected the idea that the move was a legal strategy.

Ahead of the floor sessions, some Democrats expressed concerns that Republicans wanted to pass Evers’ maps and then back a federal legal challenge before Republican-nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Diane Sykes, formerly a conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Such a challenge “could ultimately keep the state with its current gerrymandered maps, Democrats told the progressive news platform Democracy Docket. 

“If we get these new maps, the governor’s maps, signed by the Republicans, it’s more than likely that there’ll be a challenge in the 7th Circuit Court,” U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said over the weekend. “We’re fearful the Republicans are finally trying to come around to do what they should have done in the first place, but they’re doing it with — I guess the technical term would be ‘with sh-t-eating grins on their faces.’ We can assume that this is not done because of the idea of good government.”

Evers’s maps would be an improvement, but Vos’s trustworthiness is discernible only with an electron microscope. Delays in Evers’s maps, either as implementation within the legislation or by litigation against implementation, would be objectionable. 

Vos does objectionable quite well. 

Note to the special-interest men (movers & shakers, lobbyists, p.r. men, whatever) in Whitewater: looking up to Robin Vos is like looking up to the pigeon that’s gonna relieve itself on a car. Normal people do not respect the men, or the pigeons, who do that.

Ukraine’s forces claim to have destroyed a large Russian landing ship in the Black Sea: 

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.19.24: Wisconsin Assembly’s Queen of Crackpottery Comes Up Short (Yet Again)

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 Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 11. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset 4:51 for 9h 31m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1983, the Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

Credit where credit is due, including credit for recognizing that the attempts to impeach the Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe are baseless (where baseless properly excludes drunken delusions, chanting voices in one’s head, or congenital cognitive deficiency). Scott Bauer reports Wisconsin Republican leader derides GOP impeachment attempt targeting state’s top elections official:

In the Assembly, state Rep. Janel Brandtjen has introduced a resolution to impeach Wolfe. As of Thursday, it had just five co-sponsors in addition to Brandtjen. It would require 50 votes to pass.

Brandtjen tried in vain on Tuesday to be recognized to speak in an attempt to get a vote on her proposal. Brandtjen, who has endorsed discredited conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, accused Republican leaders of being “Administrator Wolfe’s PR team.”

During a news conference before Thursday’s session, Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August said Brandtjen’s proposal would not be voted on because it doesn’t have enough support to get out of committee or be approved by a majority of the Assembly.

“We have a process that has been utilized in this building for decades of how to bring a bill or a resolution to the floor,” August said. “And that’s the process that we’ll continue to use.”

August said if Brandtjen has enough support to bring the measure forward for a vote, she can.

“But the fact is she doesn’t,” August said. “Our caucus is focused on real things, not grifting and not making a big show for the cameras. And that’s all she’s interested in doing.”

Now, I’m not inclined to agree that the WISGOP is focused on real things, but it’s indisputable among non-lunatics that Brandtjen is focused on unreal things. A low bar, yes.

And yet, and yet, among the 5.8 million Wisconsinites, Brandtjen is not the state’s only crackpot, although she now seems to sit on the crackpottery throne. (Where Michael Gableman is these days I do not know, as Arkham Asylum is a fictional place. )  

By Mikel Janín / DC Comics – [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54136917

Amish man, horses help pull SUV out of snow in Ethridge, Tennessee:

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Daily Bread, Elections, Legislature, Politics, Recall, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 1.11.24: Conservative Activists Launch Recall Effort Against Speaker Vos

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset 4:41 for 9h 17m 56s of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

Anya Van Wagtendonk reports Recall effort launched against Vos (‘Conservative opponents of the powerful Assembly speaker hope to force a recall election in June’):

Conservative activists have launched a recall effort against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, citing his criticisms of former President Donald Trump and what they describe as an insufficiently right-wing record.

Matthew Snorek, a resident of Union Grove in Racine County, filed the petition to the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday. Vos, R-Rochester, has represented parts of Racine County in the state Assembly since 2005.

In the complaint, Snorek alleges Vos “is blocking fair elections in WI” and pointed to Vos not contributing to efforts by a small bloc of right-wing Assembly members to impeach Meagan Wolfe, the state’s top election administrator. 

“Wisconsin must move ‘Forward’ without Robin Vos in power,” the complaint reads. 

 In a statement, Vos called the recall “a waste of time, resources and effort.”

….

Snorek’s petition will need to get about 7,000 signatures — calculated as a quarter of votes cast in Vos’ Assembly district in the 2022 gubernatorial race — in order to force a recall election. Organizers are aiming for an election date in June.

Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night:

Daily Bread, Elections, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Law, Legislature, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 8.3.23: Nineteen Wisconsin Residents File Suit Against Gerrymandered State Legislative Districts

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Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:49 AM and sunset 8:12 PM for 14h 23m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM. On this day in 1977, Tandy Corporation…

Courts, Daily Bread, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Legislature, Politics, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.6.23: How Influential Will Janet Protasiewicz’s Supreme Court Win Be?

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Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:30 PM for 15h 13m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 92.4% of its visible disk illuminated.  Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.  On this day in 1944, Operation Overlord begins…