Good morning. Veteran’s Day in Whitewater will see morning showers with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:43 AM and sunset 4:34 PM for 9h 51m 35s of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter with 49.5% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1918, Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies…
Politics
Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Politics, Trumpism
Daily Bread for 11.9.21: Mitch McConnell Closes as Trump’s Fool
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 59. Sunrise is 6:40 AM and sunset 4:36 PM for 9h 56m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 27.6% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1867, the Tokugawa shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting…
City, Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Local Government, Politics, School District
Daily Bread for 10.27.21: Rebecca Kleefisch’s Republican ‘Mercenaries’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alt-Right, Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Disinformation, Kenosha, Politics, Violence, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.26.21: Wisconsin as a Testbed for Politically-Motivated Violence
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 54. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 5:54 PM for 10h 31m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 71.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Common Council meets at 6:30 PM. On this day in 1944, the Battle of Leyte Gulf ends…
City, Culture, Daily Bread, Local Government, Politics, School District
Daily Bread for 10.25.21: Late in the Day Even for Sociability
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 7:21 AM and sunset 5:55 PM for 10h 34m 08s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 79.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM, the Community Development Authority Seed Capital Committee meets…
City, Constitution, Daily Bread, Education, Ethics, Far-Right Populism, History, Insurrection, Politics, School District, Trumpism
Daily Bread for 10.4.21: The Basis of a Civics Syllabus for Whitewater’s Schools
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 6:29 PM for 11h 32m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1957, Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the…
Daily Bread, Government Spending, Police, Politics
Daily Bread for 8.22.21: ‘Defund the Police’ Was a Molehill
by JOHN ADAMS •
Politics, Public Health, Rhetoric, Trumpism, UW System, Vaccines, WISGOP
Steve Nass: Troll-King in Autumn
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, Steve Nass, as a state representative (now a state senator) was a notable farthest-to-the-right Wisconsin politician. The bête noire of liberals and universities, he was the state’s unmatched troll, criticizing the center-left time and again. Nass was a right-wing populist long before Trump. He was the great troll-king of Wisconsin, firing florid press releases…
Aside
IF PUBLIC OFFICIALS DON’T WANT TO READ DISCUSSIONS ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY, THEN THEY SHOULDN’T RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE.
Coronavirus, Culture, Politics, Public Health, School District, Science/Nature
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Science
by JOHN ADAMS •
It seemed reasonable, months ago, to wait until the end of the 2020-2021 school year to assess how well the Whitewater Unified School District managed the pandemic. It doesn’t seem so reasonable now, for reasons of culture as much as public health. Generally – and sensibly – one has reason to be skeptical of lay…
Conservative Populism, Culture, Education, Far-Right Populism, Horde, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, School District, Trumpism
(Local) Fear of a Red Hat
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are any number of fears that occasionally grip people, however unfounded those fears, of snakes, of spiders, of black cats, etc. (Snakes play an important ecological role, some cultures think spiders are good luck, and black cats are beautiful with notably soft coats.) And yet, and yet… no fear strikes deeper and holds tighter…
Books, Politics, Presidential race 2020, Trump
Inside the Last Gasps of the Trump Presidency
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ever wondered what it was like inside the White House during the final months, weeks, and even moments of the Trump presidency? Where better to find out than on Hell & High Water with John Heilemann’s grand return? In this special two-part episode, Heilemann has on Michael Bender, senior White House reporter for The Wall…
Culture, Politics, Social Media, Trumpism
Miller’s Gutter on Gettr
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jason Miller, former Trump spokesman, deadbeat dad, and accused harasser is behind a Twitter alternative called Gettr. Having explored it briefly, one can say the site is a poorly designed social-media gutter. See also The Latest Pro-Trump Twitter Clone Leaks User Data on Day 1 and The Pro-Trump Social Network Has an Anime Porn Problem. Gettr has low-quality…
City, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, School District, Trumpism, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whither the Conservative Populists?
by JOHN ADAMS •
In places big and small, including Whitewater, there are three main types of conservatives: traditional, transactional, and populist. (Right-wing populist in our time is mostly a euphemism for Trumpist.) Of these types, only the right-wing populists are a dynamic movement. Traditional conservatives each day look more like large reptiles after a cataclysmic meteor strike, and…