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.
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.
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.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 6:26 and sunset is 5:46, for 11 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 17.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
[At Brad] Schimel’s “Hispanic roundtable” Thursday, the state Republican Party was fully engaged. Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Brian Schimming and former Republican candidate for attorney general Eric Toney were in attendance, rubbing elbows with the John Birch Society members.
“Because people in this state and people in this city and people on the South Side need somebody who’s gonna have them top of mind and protecting victims and doing the right thing, stand up for the rule of law, all the things that we all want,” Schimming said. “And you would expect that would be easier for people to do, but it really takes somebody of great courage, somebody who’s honest and somebody who’s forthright, to step up at times like this.”
One attendee, filming Schimel’s remarks, wore #LoomersArmy hat, merch that can be purchased on the website of the Laura Loomer Fan Club. Loomer is a right-wing media personality and activist whom U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called “extremely racist.”
Schimel was introduced at the event by Marty Calderon and Mariano Garcia, two pastors on Milwaukee’s South Side who have been involved in the creation of the Republican Party’s office in the neighborhood.
In his opening prayer, Garcia criticized Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ people.
Schimel’s campaign is wholly political, and he’ll win or lose based on his strength with MAGA, Dark MAGA, Burnt Orange MAGA, Mango Tango1 MAGA, whatever.
Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 5:43, for 11 hours, 12 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1844, a gun explodes on board the steam warship USS Princeton during a pleasure cruise down the Potomac River, killing six, including Secretary of State Abel Upshur. President John Tyler, who was also on board, was not injured from the blast.
Brad Schimel, a judge and candidate for a place on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, is pickled in politics. There’s not much more to him. And so, and so, he’ll say what he feels he needs to say, one audience to the next:
Schimel’s exposition of his judicial philosophy has shifted when he speaks to different audiences.
Speaking to law students and Milwaukee voters at the Marquette event, when asked about federal judges’ role in thwarting Trump’s executive orders to end birthright citizenship, give Musk access to massive troves of personal data and stop congressionally appropriated funds from being disbursed, Schimel said it’s a judge’s role to define the limits of executive authority.
“When there’s a dispute about whether that exercise of power is legitimate or not, well, then it may have to be the court that resolves that dispute,” he said.
However, in a radio appearance with right wing host Vicki McKenna, he accused federal judges of “acting corruptly” for issuing temporary restraining orders against the dismantling of federal agencies.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander captured stunning views of the moon from about 62 miles (100 km) above the surface. The footage, sped up 10 times, was captured on Feb. 24, 2025 during its third orbital maneuver.
Whitewater in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset is 5:41, for 11 hours 6 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1815, Napoleon escapes from exile on the island of Elba (in the brig Inconstant with about 1,000 men and a flotilla of seven vessels).
Speaker Robin Vos wants Wisconsin, America, and the Whole Wide World to know that he’s now “tight” Trump:
Just a few years after President Donald Trump backed a primary challenger against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the Rochester Republican says he and the president are “tight.”
As reporter Anya van Wagtendonk catalogs, and Wisconsinites remember, it wasn’t always this way:
The comments from Vos about Trump were hardly a surprise, but they followed years of tension between the two GOP leaders that nearly resulted in Vos losing his job.
Trump regularly criticized Vos for not doing more to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin, a step election law experts said was both unconstitutional and impossible. And after the 2022 midterms didn’t go as well for Republicans as they’d hoped, Vos urged the party to move on from Trump.
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.”
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.
______
Musk is a petulant man — more needy adolescent than worthy adult — an appetitive boy. ↩︎
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 5:58, for 11 hours 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM, and resumes open session at 7 PM.
On this day in 1917, the U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom reports to Pres. Wilson on the contents of the German Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declared war on the United States.
Populism is a restless and relentless group movement, historically sometimes of the left, sometimes of the right. In our time, we have conservative populists, Trumpists, MAGA, or however else they choose to describe themselves. Their restlessness, their insatiability for ever-purer expressions of the movement, leads to splintering into new factions. (Dark MAGA is like this: Trump no longer gives some of these gentlemen the thrill that Musk now does.)
Nor does a moment like this does respect institutional boundaries; on the contrary, it seeks to overturn institutional standards no matter how sound.
WASHINGTON – At a recent campaign stop, conservative state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel acknowledged a “turf war” playing out among Wisconsin Republicans.
He said the party is “at risk of becoming divided” but suggested the time to have those discussions is after the high court election on April 1.
“This battle is going on,” Schimel said, according to audio obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “My message to everybody is … I need 100% of the conservative vote. We all have to grab an oar and work at this. If we don’t, we lose.”
“So can you shut it down for 49 more days, and let’s win this race,” he added. “And then you know what? Then duke it out.”
The infighting Schimel referenced is a behind-the-scenes clash between the conservative dark money group Turning Point Action and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The simmering tensions between the two camps are largely over the party’s infrastructure and leadership in the key battleground state. It’s a spat that has grown increasingly public following the November election and appears to be coming to a head as county parties and congressional districts elect their leadership for the next two years.
In his plea, Schimel reveals himself a nervous politico first, and a judge second. That’s unsurprising, because he admits that as a judge, he’s been slothful. SeeBrad Schimel’s Work Ethic (“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”)
From an October 2015 tweet by Adrian Bott (@cavalorn) that went viral: “I never thought leopards would eat MY face,” sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
Researchers have been eavesdropping on an unusual family of crows in Spain, collecting data on hundreds of thousands of different sounds the birds made. Small microphones recorded a variety of soft calls, far quieter than the familiar ‘caws’ people usually hear. The team then used AI to analyse the sounds and group them together. The researchers hope is to one day be able to understand the meaning of the birds’ vocalizations and perhaps even try to speak their language.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 36. Sunrise is 6:39 and sunset is 5:37, for 10 hours, 58 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 22.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1778, Baron von Steuben (Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben) arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to help train the Continental Army.
People booed and jeered at U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman as he walked into the Algoma Town Hall just outside Oshkosh Friday morning.
The Republican congressman from Glenbeulah was there for a town hall meeting with around 100 constituents. After the building hit full capacity, around 50 more stood outside.
He started by commenting on President Donald Trump’s executive orders since taking office a month ago.
“This is moving very quickly compared to other administrations, and I think, across the board, he’s done some very good things,” Grothman said.
New video shows the moment a father and his 12-year-old son were rescued from a steep cliffside in Snow Canyon in Utah. The pair was rescued after surviving on supplies that were left behind by another hiker who was previously stranded in the same location. NBC News’ Camila Bernal has the story.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 23. Sunrise is 6:50 and sunset is 5:28, for 10 hours, 38 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 85.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1960, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
In 2021, this libertarian blogger posted (as part of a longer series) on the kinds of conservatives in Whitewater. SeeWhitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Kinds of Conservatives in Whitewater, April 8, 2021. At that time, there were three conservative types of note: traditionalists (old-school types) transactionalists (deal-making types), and populists (what’s now called Trumpism or MAGA).
The populists are often underestimated. I have been – and am – a critic of these rebranded Trumpists, but have never underestimated them.
These populist conservatives are not deal-makers: they want what they want, on their terms, as soon as they can get it. As the traditionalists fade away, the question among conservatives in Whitewater (and other places) will be whether the deal-makers or the populists dominate right-of-center politics.
There’s a sure answer now, four years later: only the conservative populists matter politically. There’s one movement, one way, one outlook.
A conservative might imagine himself as something else (a traditionalist or a deal-maker), and might be something else, but only in his house or in his head.
Conservatives in Whitewater’s public square are all populists.
Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell Simancas, when the massive whale suddenly surfaced, trapping the young man and his yellow kayak in its mouth for a few seconds before letting him go.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 46. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset is 5:09, for 10 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 20.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1653, New Amsterdam (now New York City) is incorporated.
Earlier today, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the world’s most famous meteorologist predicted six more weeks of winter.
An ordinary person can, reasonably, do Phil one better. We may have six more weeks of winter, but we’re sure to have more than six weeks of political controversy across the city, state, and nation. If there’s ever been an understatement, there it is…
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 20. Sunrise is 7:22 and sunset is 4:46, for 9 hours, 24 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1967, the first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Packers defeat the Chiefs 35–10.
It is from our daughter-in-law in Seattle that we first learned the term The Big Dark for winter at that high latitude. These months, in the Pacific Northwest and Wisconsin, bring less daylight, more nighttime. The Big Dark.
The term has other uses. All of us, politically, are now in a big dark: while one can dimly see the terrain, there’s not enough light to be confident when placing each and every footstep. Predicting any given step, any given day, always has some uncertainty. It has greater uncertainty now, as unpredictability is among the characteristics of the populism that holds sway.
A story in the Journal Sentinel about prospective Wisconsin 2026 gubernatorial candidates might make sense in ordinary times, as statewide campaigns have to fundraise long in advance of election day. See Molly Beck and Lawrence Andrea, Republican challengers start to line up as Gov. Tony Evers considers 2026 run for 3rd term, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 14, 2025. In these times, the story is of limited use to anyone other than campaign teams.
Who’s running in 2026 matters far less than what happens, and who’s running, in 2025. It’s better to turn away from next year’s possibilities and list in this year one’s principles, all the better to meet challenges and threats far closer than next year’s candidates.
Overused but never more useful: first things first. Far too soon for 2026.
The Dakar Rally, an annual rally raid organized by the Amaury Sport Organization, is currently happening in Saudi Arabia. AP photographer, Christophe Ena, offers a behind-the-scenes look into how he captures the off-road motorsport event, frame-by-frame.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 59. Sunrise is 7:18, and sunset is 5:59, for 10 hours, 40 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 57.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1868, having taken the shogunate’s seat of power at Edo and declared it his new capital as Tokyo, Mutsuhito proclaims the start of the new Meiji era.
Anya Van Wagtendonk, Joe Schulz, and Evan Casey report Fight for control of state government runs through 3 Wisconsin Senate districts (‘Races for the 14th, 30th and 8th state Senate districts have been hotly contested’). They highlight three Senate districts: 14th District (Democrat Democrat Sarah Keyeski and Republican incumbent Joan Ballweg), 30th District (Democrat Jamie Wall and Republican Jim Rafter), and the 8th District (Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin and Republican incumbent Duey Stroebel). These races will not alone be enough to determine Wisconsin Senate control this year, but outcomes will suggest longer-term trends.
[The 14th] district now encompasses all of Richland and Sauk counties and portions of several others, including Dane County, a Democratic stronghold. It includes the communities of Richland Center, Reedsburg, Baraboo, Spring Green, Sauk City, Lodi, Portage, Columbus and the Wisconsin Dells. Part of the district also dips into the city of Madison.
According to data compiled by Marquette University, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would have won the district by about 10 points in 2022, and President Joe Biden would have carried it by about 4 points in 2020.
….
Before redistricting, the 30th Senate District stretched north to Marinette, and favored Republicans. It’s been held by Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, since 2021, but this year, he’s running in the adjacent 2nd Senate District, a seat with a strong Republican lean.
In recent elections, the 30th District has leaned Democratic. In 2022, Evers would have carried it by about 7 points. Four years ago Biden would have won it by about 3.
….
Wisconsin’s 8th Senate District includes parts of Milwaukee County and also Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee Counties, also known as the WOW Counties. The area has historically been a Republican stronghold, but it’s been trending Democratic in recent years.
The test this fall is whether redrawn districts like these will lead to partisan changes.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 57. Sunrise is 7:17, and sunset is 6:00, for 10 hours, 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 68 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval quarantine of the Communist nation.
It’s understandable that voters would be curious about different candidates. Some ordinary voters might want, reasonably, to take a look at Jill Stein, for example. Prospective voters, however, are not Stein; well-meaning and curious people should not be confused or conflated with this aged perennial candidate. She may seem as through she’s a viable choice, but looking closely she’s a shill for Putin and an effective vote for Trump.
Lawrence O’Donnell describes Stein’s Trojan Horse candidacy aptly:
And look, and look… there’s a distinction to draw. Voters are sometimes mistaken and misguided, and should be critiqued cautiously. Candidates and their operatives, especially someone like Stein, do not deserve gentle care and feeding.
(In a comment and my reply about Stein here at FREE WHITEWATER from two months ago, this libertarian blogger yielded no ground to a Stein operative, and ended further comment from him at a moment of my choosing. Stein and her campaign team, in Wisconsin and elsewhere, are experienced politicos who deserve no particular caution or deference.)
This libertarian blogger is not a Democrat, but instead is a Never Trump man who knows that Trumpism can only be overcome by joining the largest possible coalition. That coalition is composed mostly, but not exclusively, of Democrats. That coalition has Kamala Harris as its standard bearer. Harris does not have my partial or sometime support: she has my full and complete support in defense of our constitutional order. I am not hesitant about supporting her; I am wholly supportive of her and her defense of our centuries-long liberal democratic tradition against autocracy.
It’s important both to take a principled position and hold that position against opposition. Cannot imagine another other way, truly.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 6:56, and sunset is 6:29, for 11 hours, 34 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 2.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1957, Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
There’s no one who now knows, truly, what will be the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, in Wisconsin or anywhere else. It’s enough to take a position, first to hold that position against opposition, and thereafter to advance from it against opposition. One watches and acts without foreknowledge of the final result. A letter yesterday is like that, as Erik Gunn reports Wisconsin GOP group launches pro-Harris campaign with open letter:
Two dozen Wisconsin Republicans, including former lawmakers, other former elected officials and a GOP sitting district attorney, have signed an open letter declaring their support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in her campaign for president and condemning the Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.
The Harris campaign released the letter early Thursday, describing it as the product of months of outreach by the campaign and by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to Republicans.
“We, the undersigned, are Republicans from across Wisconsin who bring the same message: Donald Trump does not align with Wisconsin values,” the letter says. “To ensure our democracy and our economy remain strong for another four years, we must elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House.”
The letter was released as part of the launch of a formal Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz organization, with just over a month to go before the Nov. 5 election.
“Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz will play a pivotal role in facilitating Republican-to-Republican voter contact,” said the Harris-Walz campaign announcement Thursday. Through phone banking and networking with “Republican organizations, businesses, and community groups,” the GOP-oriented group will focus “in part on the more than 120,000 Wisconsinites who voted against Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary earlier this year,” the campaign announcement said.
Trump’s Wisconsin primary opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, finished with more than 16% of the vote in Ozaukee, 12% in Washington and 14% in Waukesha counties.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:55, and sunset is 6:31, for 11 hours, 37 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 0.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
There will be a Home Buyer’s Educational Event at the Community Engagement Center, 1260 W Main St. in Whitewater from 6 to 7:30 PM.
On this day in 1952, the United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon in the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, to become the world’s third nuclear power.
The Marquette Law School Poll, a respected survey of political preferences, issued its latest findings yesterday. Here are some key results of their latest work:
New Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin voters finds Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris supported by 52% and Republican former President Donald Trump supported by 48% among registered voters. Among likely voters, it is also 52% for Harris and 48% for Trump. #mulawpoll
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is supported by 53% to Eric Hovde’s 46% among registered voters. Among likely voters, the results are the same. #mulawpoll
In the Senate race, including independent candidates, it is Baldwin 51% and Hovde 45%. Phil Anderson, the “Disrupt the Corruption” party candidate, gets 1%, and Thomas Leager, of the “America First” party, gets 1%, among both registered and likely voters. #mulawpoll
I’ve reported poll results before, in these races and others, and yet one should be clear with oneself: these are no more than possible descriptions of sentiment at those brief moments when respondents answered a pollster’s questions.
With differences between the candidates so stark, and thus stakes so high, the course both practical and moral is simply to carry on, march on, and slog on in support of one’s candidates.
If ever one’s conscience were to be one’s guide, now’s the time.
