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Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 4.10.25: That Was Walker’s Plan? Well, It Was Dumb Enough to Be Walker’s Plan…

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:21 and sunset is 7:31, for 13 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 837, Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (3.2 million miles).

Yesterday’s post here at FREE WHITEWATER was about Scott Walker’s irrelevance to current Wisconsin politics. See Scott Walker, Man from Another Era. Bruce Murphy, at Urban Milwaukee, has a revealing post about how Walker tried, and failed miserably, to become relevant again. (As Murphy perceptively notes, the story depends on accepting the veracity of Walker’s account of Walker’s behind-the-scenes conduct.) Murphy lays out the details:

Musk’s approach, if we can believe Scott Walker, came from a plan hatched by Walker and the former Republican governor’s political consultant Keith Gilkes. Their pitch was for Musk to get involved in the Wisconsin race as he did in the presidential race in November. “You were effective in Wisconsin, and you can be effective in this race again in Wisconsin,” Walker said he told Musk.

Except. Musk spent money on a presidential race that polls showed was very close and with Trump leading. A relatively safe investment. And a race so close that the Musk super PAC canvassing voters door-to-door could get a big return from turning out a relatively small number of voters compared to the total number voting in Wisconsin and other swing states in November. Trump won Wisconsin by just over 29,300 votes, a margin of less than 1 percent.

Which is a very different situation than the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin. The state’s previous high court race, in 2023, with the abortion the key issue, was an 11% loss for the conservatives, with liberal Janet Protasiewicz defeating conservative Dan Kelly by more than 203,000 votes. Granted, Schimel was a better candidate than Kelly, but abortion was still going to be a major issue in this year’s election. Moreover, we now know that Republicans knew Crawford was ahead in the race and their polls showed Schimel’s high point in the polls was five points behind. In short, this would not be like the presidential election, where a relatively small increase in turnout could decide the election.

See Bruce Murphy, How Much Did Musk Pay Per Vote?, Urban Milwaukee, April 8, 2025.

Astonishing. This could have been Walker’s plan: it is, after all, Foxconn-level thinking. If Walker is to be believed, Walker was able to persuade Musk to waste tens of millions on a race that Schimel was losing and was likely to keep on losing once the radioactive Musk became involved.

Walker likely did concoct this plan, and get Musk to go along. There is, after all, no evidence whatsoever that the only person who could have concocted a worse plan was involved in the Wisconsin election.

Advice from cattosbeingcattos:

Authoritarian Populism, Authoritarianism, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Musk, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.31.25: Musk Has a Good Time in Green Bay

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see wind gusts and a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 7:20, for 12 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board meets at 7 PM.

On this day in 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.

Update No. 2: Turns out Nicholas Jacobs, one of the winners of a million dollars, wasn’t an ordinary attendee but a Wisconsin College Republicans chairman:

One of the recipients of Elon Musk’s $1 million checks at his event in Green Bay Sunday night is the chairman of the Wisconsin College Republicans, sparking some suspicion on social media that the giveaway was fixed.

Nicholas Jacobs, a student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, is listed as the chairman of Wisconsin’s College Republicans chapter. He has made his account private on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns.

According to his LinkedIn account, Jacobs worked for the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Derrick Van Orden. In the fall of 2024, he worked as a “ballot chase representative” for Turning Point Action, which began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses but has expanded its voter outreach operations, especially in Wisconsin.

See Hope Karnopp, Wisconsin College Republicans chairman received one of Elon Musk’s $1 million checks, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 31, 2025.

And so, and so, of the attendees the breakdown would be two winners in a room full of suckers.

Update No. 1 on yesterday’s post (Wisconsin Courts Won’t Intervene Against Musk): Elon Musk hands out $1 million payments after Wisconsin Supreme Court declines request to stop him:

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.” 

Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars to a man during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars to a man during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

“It’s a super big deal,” he told a roughly 2,000-person crowd in Green Bay on Sunday night, taking the stage in a yellow cheesehead hat. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person.”

….

A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.

See Scott Bauer and Thomas Beaumont, Elon Musk hands out $1 million payments after Wisconsin Supreme Court declines request to stop him, Associated Press, March 30, 2025. See also Wisconsin Supreme Court Kaul v. Musk, Case 2025CV001087, March 28, 2025.

How Tariffs Are Going To Jack Up Car Prices In The U.S.:

Authoritarian Populism, Authoritarianism, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Law, Musk, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.30.25: Wisconsin Courts Won’t Intervene Against Musk

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:40 and sunset is 7:19, for 12 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1867, the United States and the Russian Empire agree to the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre. The parties later ratify the agreement by treaty, and effective transfer occurs in October 1867.

It was improbable that Wisconsin courts would intervene to prevent Elon Musk from conducting a giveaway (of either hundreds of dollars or even millions of dollars) so close to the April 1st election. American courts are not dispositionally situated to address an authoritarian movement, as these movements act quickly, audaciously, and ignore both law and tradition in pursuit of their goals.

Attorney General Kaul’s litigation against Musk has come to naught:

A Wisconsin appellate court denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, just two days before a closely contested Supreme Court election.

The denial Saturday by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals is the latest twist in Musk’s deep involvement in the race, which has set a record for spending in a judicial election and has become a litmus test for the opening months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump and Musk are backing Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel in the race, while Democrats are behind Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.

Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit Friday, arguing that Musk’s offer violates the law. Kaul on Saturday later appealed to the state Court of Appeals, after a county court judge refused earlier in the day to hear the request for an emergency injunction to block the payments.

See Wisconsin appeals court won’t stop Musk’s $1M payments to voters after attorney general sues, Associated Press, March 29, 2025. See also the circuit court filing Kaul v. Musk, Case 2025CV001087, March 28, 2025.

Authoritarian movements do not meet their end in the courts; they meet their end through widespread protest and civil disobedience.

Global protests against Tesla CEO Elon Musk:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Schimel, Susan Crawford, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.28.25: Look Who’s Coming to Review His Investment

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:43 and sunset is 7:16, for 12 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, in the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory.

It’s a frenetic ending to the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

Elon Musk is coming to Wisconsin:

In a post on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk wrote late Thursday that he would “give a talk in Wisconsin” on Sunday night. He did not say where.

“Entrance is limited to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election,” he wrote, though he did not specify how that would be verified.

Musk also wrote that he would present two $1 million checks “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.”

….

In a statement, the spokesman for Schimel’s opponent, liberal Susan Crawford, said Musk was trying to buy off Schimel and labeled his visit a “last-minute desperate distraction.”

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” spokesman Derrick Honeyman said.

See Alison Dirr, Daniel Bice, and Molly Beck, Elon Musk will be in Wisconsin Sunday, hand out $2M ahead of Tuesday state Supreme Court election, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 28, 2025.

Trump joins a teleconference for Schimel:

Trump framed the race that will decide the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court in national terms, saying it would have an “outsized impact on the future of the country.”

“I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local,” Trump said in the 10-minute call. “The whole country’s watching.”

See Alison Dirr, President Trump in public call urges Wisconsinites to support Brad Schimel in Supreme Court race, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 27, 2025.

We’ll know soon enough.

This time, a Guinness World Record for an Ashland motorcyclist’s global journey:

After 14 months and 50,000 miles, Bridget McCutchen from Ashland earned the Guinness World Record as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle. The northern Wisconsin native traversed 45 countries, developing newfound confidence — and inspiring more women to ride — along the way.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Schimel, Sen. Ron Johnson, Susan Crawford, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.25.25: Ron Johnson’s Right (Truly) About Musk & Schimel

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:48 and sunset is 7:13, for 12 hours, 25 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1655, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

It’s a week from Election Day, and Ron Johnson’s correct in his recent observation on Brad Schimel’s campaign for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court:

His comments came as he and Schimel joined Musk in a live, half-hour discussion on the social media platform X, which the tech billionaire owns. The conversation took place less than 24 hours after Trump waded into the race with a long-sought endorsement of Schimel.More: All our reporting on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Susan Crawford, Brad Schimel

“This is entirely winnable, and you know, if we do win it, again, we have to thank Elon for all the support he’s given this race, and I was really glad to see President Trump throw in his endorsement as well,” Johnson told the 10,000 people on the livestream…..

….

A statement from Crawford’s campaign described the X event as “Elon Musk’s check-in with his $12 million investment.”

“Musk wants a lackey on the Supreme Court who will rule in his company’s favor on their lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin,” said Crawford campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman. “Wisconsinites don’t want this slimy and corrupt billionaire running our Supreme Court.”

See Alison Dirr, Elon Musk will be to thank if Brad Schimel wins Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Ron Johnson says, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 22, 2025.

Crews in the Carolinas fight multiple wildfires:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.23.25: Musk to Pay $100 for Each Wisconsin Petition Signature

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see afternoon showers with a high of 47. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset is 7:11, for 12 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 38.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1933,  the Reichstag passes the Enabling Act of 1933, making Hitler dictator of Germany.

Musk has the money, and says he’ll pay one-hundred dollars for each Wisconsin signatory on a petition his political action committee is circulating:

A political action committee associated with Elon Musk is offering Wisconsin voters $100 if they sign a petition “in opposition to activist judges” and another $100 if they refer another person who signs the petition. The petition requires people to provide a name, address, email and phone number — information that will help the group make further contact with voters.

The group, America PAC, has reported spending more than $7 million in support of Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel’s campaign for state Supreme Court. Musk himself has contributed more than $13 million to pro-Schimel efforts.

During the campaign, Schimel’s opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, has accused Musk of trying to buy a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Musk’s company, Tesla, recently filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to change Wisconsin’s law about who can operate car dealerships within the state.

Schimel himself has portrayed himself as a “support network” for President Donald Trump if elected to the Court.

See Henry Redman, Musk PAC offers Wisconsin voters $100 for signing petition against ‘activist’ judges, Wisconsin Examiner, March 21, 2025.

The payment is for a signature in exchange for contact information. The contact information is only useful if those contacted then vote Musk’s way. Those voting Musk’s way are only valuable to Musk if they would not have voted Musk’s way otherwise.

(There might be an opportunity here for people to sign Musk’s petition — whether they choose to ignore any follow-up contact or sign it although they already intend to vote his way — and get paid on Musk’s tab.)

via GIPHY

Trekking the blue ice of Perito Moreno in Argentina as world marks World Glacier Day:

Friday marks the first-ever World Glacier Day, an international observance established by the United Nations to raise awareness about the rapid retreat of glaciers worldwide. As experts warn of accelerating ice loss, visitors at Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier watch in awe as massive ice chunks break away and crash into Lake Argentino—a process both natural and symbolic of broader climate concerns. (AP Video/Sara España).

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Susan Crawford, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.19.25: Musk’s Fraud on Wisconsin

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset is 7:06, for 12 hours, 7 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

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

On this day in 1918,  Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.

The editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes of Musk’s fraudulent mailers attacking Judge Susan Crawford:

If billionaire Elon Musk wants to dump millions on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, that’s his prerogative — we’ve come to expect that sort of thing from both sides in a battleground state where control of the court seems to be perpetually in the balance. But, in the interest of voters here, we ask one thing: Be honest about it.

And, above all, do not spread false and malicious information disguised as facts.

Reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Daniel Bice shows we’ve crossed into dangerous territory. A political group funded by Musk manufactured a disinformation campaign against Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge running for a seat on the court April 1.

The disinformation stems from ads, posted on Facebook and delivered in text messages, that are false on two fronts. First, Progress 2028 casts itself as a progressive alternative to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. It’s not. Progress 2028 is a front for Building America’s Future, a Musk-funded political nonprofit.

Second, it purports to address things Crawford is supposedly committed to, which are actually hot button issues many voters oppose at the gut-level. This makes it doubly specious, because it cynically tries to create a cloak of authenticity when its real mission is to muddy the waters, then dip into the mud to throw it. 

See Editorial Board, Elon Musk’s despicable disinformation tampers with WI Supreme Court election (‘A political group funded by Elon Musk manufactured a disinformation campaign against Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge running for a seat on the court April 1’), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 19, 2025.

When Elon Musk call for free speech, he calls for his right to lie; when he calls for free speech absolutism, he calls for his right to lie with abandon.

Susan Crawford for Wisconsin:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Schimel, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.13.25: The Crawford-Schimel Debate

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 60. Sunrise is 7:09 and sunset is 6:59, for 11 hours, 50 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, an Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves is passed by Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

Last night, Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel met in the only debate of their campaign for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court:

Several times, Crawford accused Schimel of saying different things to broader audiences than to audiences made up of his political allies. She called attention to reporting by the Washington Post that Schimel said Trump was “screwed over” by the Supreme Court in its decisions regarding the 2020 election, and reporting by the Wisconsin Examiner that he had told a group of canvassers he’d be a “support network” for Trump. 

“He is not impartial, and he says different things in front of a broad audience like this, where he knows it’s going to be televised, than he’ll say when he’s talking to his political allies,” she said. “He is not trustworthy.” 

On the campaign trail, access to abortion has been one of the most prominent issues. The Court is currently considering a lawsuit that would have the state’s 1849 law declared invalid, while another lawsuit is pending in the lower courts asking if the state’s Constitution grants a right to abortion access. 

Schimel has said he personally opposes abortion, that both of his daughters are adopted and he believes the 1849 statute is a “valid law.” In the debate he repeated what he’s said during the campaign on the issue — that it should be up to the state’s voters. Wisconsin doesn’t allow voters to influence state law through a referendum process. 

See Henry Redman, Supreme Court candidates continue accusations of partisanship in sole debate, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 13, 2025.

Schimel likely knows, if he’s worked up the energy to read the law after his habitually light work schedule, that a voters’ referendum would be advisory,1 and to overturn Wisconsin’s 1849 statutory abortion ban would require a proposed state constitutional amendment2 that the WISGOP legislature would never put before voters.

Schimel being untrustworthy is an axiom. See FREE WHITEWATER, We Now Know that Schimel Has Lied at Least Once (Could Be More!), March 28, 2025.

Shrewd moment of the night came from Crawford:

At one point, in a remark that Crawford said was a “slip of the tongue,” she referred to Musk as “Elon Schimel.”

Worth running an add with that moniker for Schimel…

______

  1. As with a proposed advisory referendum in 2024 that, in fact, never made it out of the Wisconsin Legislature. ↩︎
  2. Gov. Evers has proposed the ability of voters to adopt or repeal state laws without the Legislature, but the WISGOP won’t approve that, either. ↩︎

How to see Thursday’s night, Friday morning’s lunar eclipse:

Look to the sky late Thursday evening to spot a rare blood moon lunar eclipse. The total lunar eclipse will be visible in North America, South America, western parts of Europe and Africa from Thursday, March 13 to Friday, March 14. As the moon passes through the Earth’s innermost shadow, light from the sun passing through the Earth’s atmosphere will be filtered in just the right way to bathe the moon in a reddish, orange hue. Totality – when the moon is completely within the Earth’s inner shadow and turns reddish – will start at 12:26 a.m. EDT and 11:26 p.m. PDT and last about 65 minutes. The phenomenon is visible by the naked eye, but for the best viewing experience, find a dark environment and grab a pair of binoculars or a telescope. According to NASA, another total lunar eclipse won’t be visible in the U.S. until March 2026.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.6.25: Mr. Trump’s Little Helper

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 40. Sunrise is 6:21 and sunset is 5:50, for 11 hours, 29 minutes of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter with 49.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1967,  Joseph Stalin‘s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States. (She later moved to Wisconsin, and passed away in Richland Center.)

Brad Schimel, candidate for a seat of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, would be happy as a footstool for Trump:

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel told a group of canvassers in Waukesha County last weekend that he needs to be elected to provide a “support network” for President Donald Trump and shared  complaints about the 2020 election that have been frequently espoused by election deniers. 

In a video of the remarks, Schimel is speaking to a group of canvassers associated with Turning Point USA — a right-wing political group that has become increasingly active in Wisconsin’s Republican party. 

….

“Donald Trump doesn’t do this by himself, there has to be a support network around it,” Schimel said.

Which conspiracies are on Schimel’s mind? These:

Schimel pointed to the issue of special voting deputies in nursing homes as a major problem. 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials known as special voting deputies who normally go into nursing homes to help residents cast absentee ballots were unable to enter those facilities. 

Republicans have claimed that decision allowed people who should have been ineligible to vote because they’d been declared incompetent to cast a ballot. Conspiracy theorists have pointed to affidavits filed by family members of nursing home residents that their relatives were able to vote. Only a judge can declare someone incompetent to vote, however. 

The issue led to the Republican sheriff of Racine County to accuse members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) of committing felony election fraud and became a target in former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s widely derided review of the 2020 election. 

Schimel also blamed the election commission’s decision to exclude the Green Party’s candidates from the ballot that year for Trump’s loss. WEC voted not to allow the party on the ballot because there were errors with the candidate’s addresses on the paperwork. The party sued to have the decision overturned, but the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against the party because it was too close to the election. 

While conservatives held the majority on the Court at the time, Schimel  blamed liberals. 

See Henry Redman, Schimel tells canvassers he’ll be ‘support network’ for Trump and rehashes election conspiracies, Wisconsin Examiner, March 6, 2025.

See also FREE WHITEWATER, We Now Know that Schimel Has Lied at Least Once (Could Be More!) and Wisconsin Politico Swears He’s the Most Apolitical Man Alive.

If you’ve AppleTV+, then a recommendation: Berlin ER (Krank: Berlin). Here’s the trailer in the original German, with English subtitles:

Campaign Ads, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 3.5.25: No Time Like the Present for an Ad Against Musk

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with 42. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset is 5:49, for 11 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 38.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Starin Park Water Tower Committee meets at 6 PM and the Landmarks Commission meets at 7 PM.

On this day in 1770, at the Boston Massacre, five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War five years later.

I’m not a Democrat, but from my NeverTrump perspective, there’s no time like the present for a ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign:

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is working to tie state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel to Elon Musk with an ad campaign titled the “People v. Musk.”

The move comes as Musk’s prominence has grown in national politics for his role cutting government spending under President Donald Trump, and after groups backed by Musk have spent millions attacking Schimel’s opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.

The first ad from what the state Democratic Party is calling a “seven-figure” campaign references the firing of air traffic controllers and federal funding cuts initiated by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The ad repeatedly shows video of video of Musk making a straight-armed gesture on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

See Rich Kremer, Democrats launch ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, March 5, 2025.

It’s lawful to spend money on the race, and it’s lawful to criticize others for their spending on the race. Both are true.

Musk, however, is only appealing to people who will accept anything in the place of a good thing. Keep going.

See also FREE WHITEWATER, Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel and Musk Drops More on Schimel in Wisconsin (Of Course He Does).

Eaglets:

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.4.25: Wisconsin, National Yet Again

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:25 and sunset is 5:48, for 11 hours, 23 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 27.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1944, after the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.

Wisconsin is a small Midwestern state of under six million people. She’s also a state that punches far above the weight of a small Midwestern state of under six million people. It’s true yet again:

President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk’s policies will get their first major test at the ballot box this spring in an election that will determine who controls the Wisconsin Supreme Court and shape the future of abortion rights and union power in the swing state.

Two years ago, liberals gained a 4-3 majority on the court after 15 years of conservative control. They threw out legislative maps that gave Republicans commanding majorities in the statehouse, reinstated the use of absentee ballot drop boxes and accepted cases that will decide whether abortion remains legal in the state.

But with a liberal justice retiring this year, conservatives now have a shot at regaining the majority. If they do not, liberals are poised to control the court until at least 2028, and interest groups are expected to file redistricting litigation that could give Democrats one or two more seats in Congress.

See Patrick Marley, Wisconsin Supreme Court race puts Trump and Musk at center stage, Washington Post, March 3, 2025.

See also FREE WHITEWATER, Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel and Musk Drops More on Schimel in Wisconsin (Of Course He Does).

Firefighters struggle to contain seven-day wildfire in north-eastern Japan:

Firefighters are struggling to contain a wildfire in north-eastern Japan which has been burning for seven days. A number of homes have been burned in a small coastal town near Ofunato city in Iwate prefecture, and thousands of people have been evacuated. Largest wildfire in decades rages in Japan as authorities warn it could spread.

Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Oops, Politics, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.25.25: Successful Women All Look the Same to Elon Musk, Don’t They?

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:36 and sunset is 5:39, for 11 hours 3 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1947, Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct Béla Kovács — secretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders’ Party — and deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament. His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.

Perhaps after at least thirteen children with four women, and who knows how many failed dalliances, furtive assignations, and meaningless encounters, Elon Musk1 doesn’t care much for telling one woman apart from another. It’s probably especially difficult for him when he’s asked to identify an accomplished professional woman (or any woman) in daylight.

And so, and so, predictably Musk’s political action committee has confused Judge Susan Crawford of Dane County with another woman of the same name:

One of the first attack ads launched by a Elon Musk-backed group in the hotly contested state Supreme Court race has landed with a resounding thud.

That’s because the ad that Building America’s Future is currently running on social media doesn’t feature Susan M. Crawford, the liberal Dane County judge running for the high court against conservative Brad Schimel.

Rather, the digital ad has a large photo of Susan P. Crawford, a law school professor at Harvard University. It appears Building America’s Future lifted her picture from her Wikipedia profile.

“Susan Crawford: Wrong for Wisconsin,” the ad says.

Ok, but which Crawford?

Perhaps, more accurately, it should read, “Wrong Susan Crawford for Wisconsin.”

See Daniel Bice, Elon Musk group posts photo of wrong Susan Crawford in digital ad, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 24, 2025.

One brown-haired woman’s like another, right? All women lawyers are the same, don’t you know? The name on a Wikipedia page matters more than the bio from that page, isn’t it obvious? Massachusetts and Wisconsin are so similar, aren’t they?2

That’s top-notch discernment from America’s shadow president.

Top notch.

______

  1. Musk is a petulant man — more needy adolescent than worthy adult — an appetitive boy. ↩︎
  2. That would be one long commute. ↩︎

Firefall at Yosemite National Park: