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Daily Bread for 3.14.25: Schumer Gets the Criticism He Deserves

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 74. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset is 7:00, for 11 hours, 52 minutes of daytime. The moon is full with 99.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, the Royal Air Force drops the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.

There’s national discussion about Sen. Chuck Schumer’s decision to vote in favor of a Republican-supported continuing resolution in the Senate. I’m not a member of the Democratic Party, but as I am a Never Trump libertarian aligned with them on policy toward Trump, Democrats’ frustration with Schumer is understandable to me (although I’ve never thought much of him).

From Bluesky, here’s Democrat Josh Marshall writing about Schumer:

Here’s a scatological comment on reactions to Schumer’s capitulation from comedian, actor, and writer Michael Ian Black:

Indeed.

There’s a local angle in all this. A day or two ago, some Democrats were standing along Main Street in Whitewater with signs protesting recent Trump decisions. Some of them seemed about Schumer’s age, but there they were, lawfully expressing their opposition. Good for them.

And yet, and yet, in every town, including Whitewater, there’s at least one Democratic man of Schumer’s age who would behave as Schumer is behaving, capitulating, yielding, or even carrying the message of the very rightwing populists who would gladly bring about that man’s ruin. (These diffident types would have, of course, one self-serving rationalization or another for their servile behavior.)

Marshall’s words apply to such types as these: foolish and weak men.

They are unsuited to the times. The sooner they fade from the scene the better.

‘Blood moon’ lunar eclipse seen across South America:

Moongazers gathered in Chile, Argentina and Venezuela to observe a total lunar eclipse. The events happen when the moon, Earth and sun align just so. The Earth casts a shadow that can partially or totally blot out the moon

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.

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

Daily Bread for 3.12.25: Trump Runs for Wisconsin Supreme Court

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 55. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset is 6:58, for 11 hours, 47 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1989,  Sir Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web.

Musk pays for ads that boost Schimel for Tump:

“Conservative Brad Schimel will support President Trump’s agenda!” says the new flyer. “Together, we won the White House. Now it’s time to win the courthouse!”

A mailer supporting conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel is paid for the America PAC, a super PAC started by billionaire Elon Musk to support Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency..

The campaign literature features a picture of Trump being sworn in as president with his hand upheld and a second photo of Schimel with the Wisconsin Capitol in the background. It then urges voters to elect Schimel to the Supreme Court next month.

America PAC, the Musk super PAC, and a second Musk group, the nonprofit Building America’s Future, have reported spending more than $10 million on TV ads, digital ads, mailers, voter turnout and canvassing.

(Emphasis in original.)

See Daniel Bice, New Musk mailer says Brad Schimel will ‘support President Trump’s agenda’ from bench, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 12, 2025.

Brad Schimel, circuit court judge, isn’t running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court; Trump’s dutiful foot soldier is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Trump will have to split his time between golfing, buying cars on the White House Lawn, and trying to stay awake during sessions of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

‘Dollar for dollar’: Canada announces 25% tariffs on nearly $30bn in US imports:

Canada’s finance minister, Dominic LeBlanc, announced retaliatory tariffs on US imports, including steel and aluminum, amid a growing trade war.

America, City, Culture, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.11.25: Doubling Down on Ignorant Economics

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset is 6:57, for 11 hours, 44 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 93.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.

Monday in America: The Rapidly Declining Economic Climate.

Tuesday in America:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, escalating a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor and showing an indifference to recent stock market turmoil and rising recession risks.

Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.

“I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social.

After a brutal stock market selloff on Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a legitimate plan to grow the economy instead of perhaps pushing it into a recession. But so far the president is doubling down on the tariffs he talked up repeatedly during the 2024 campaign and throwing a once stable economy into utter turmoil as investors expected him to lead with deregulation and tax cuts instead of colossal tax hikes.

See Josh Boak, Rob Gillies, and Michelle Price, Trump doubles planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50% as trade war intensifies, Associated Press, March 11, 2025.

Update, 3.12.25: Only hours later on Tuesday, Trump reversed course. (Trump defines decisive down.)

The reporting is sound: tariffs do act as tax hikes, and Trump’s tariffs will be, in effect, colossal tax hikes on consumers and businesses. All America will feel them.

See Firefly’s Blue Ghost moon lander drill, vacuum and deploy electrodes:

The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost moon lander has begun its work on the moon using its drill, vacuum and electrodes. Blue Ghost has drilled into surface to determine heat flow from interior of Moon. It has deployed four tethered Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) electrodes and an 8-foot mast to study the deep interior of the moon. Also, it’s Lunar PlanetVac collects lunar soil and more using pressurized nitrogen gas.

America, City, Conservative Populism, Culture, Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Flop Sweat, Populists, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 3.10.25: The Rapidly Declining Economic Climate

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 66. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset is 6:55, for 11 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 87.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Plan & Architectural Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 2017, the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea in response to a major political scandal is unanimously upheld by the country’s Constitutional Court, ending her presidency.

Whitewater is in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin is in America. The economic outlook for America is in decline. Whitewater will not escape national and state trends.

A man with six business bankruptcies now won’t rule out a recession in 2025:

“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said when pressed about the possibility of a recession during a recorded interview that aired on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

….

The rosy economic outlook that greeted Trump’s return to the White House has dimmed in recent weeks. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% in February, boosted by firings in the public sector. And consumer confidence fellby the most in any given month since August 2021. 

American consumers share concerns that tariffs will raise prices on everyday goods, while corporate CEOs are eager for clarity as the president has continually announced and then rolled back new tariff packages. His moves last week, levying and then delaying 25 percent tariffs on a major chunk of Mexican and Canadian goods until April, are just the latest example. The confusion has sent markets scrambling. The S&P 500 fell by more than 3 percent on the week.

See Gregory Svirnovskiy, Trump won’t rule out a recession in 2025, POLITICO, March 9, 2025.

The conservative populists have no sound grasp of economics, as theirs is a movement of cultural revenge, not economics. Trump’s first term was an economic failure, yet many of them delusionally imagine him as an economic guru.

Truth in advertising: Come for the culture war, stay for the recession.

Stocks take another tumble after Trump’s weekend comments on inflation:

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:

Daily Bread, Politics, Speaker Vos, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 2.26.25: Sure, Whatever, but Trump Is Only ‘Tight’ with Trump

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Good morning.

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.

In 2022, Trump backed Republican Adam Steen in his bid to defeat Vos, calling the speaker a “RINO,” short for Republican In Name Only, on social media and on the campaign trail. Vos narrowly escaped the primary before easily winning that year’s general election.

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.

See Anya van Wagtendonk, Despite rocky past, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s ‘tight’ with Trump White House, Wisconsin Public Radio, February 25, 2025.

Vos bullies the vulnerable, but is, himself, easily bullied. Trump, by contrast, easily bullies.

Vos will find himself a target yet again.

New Jersey officer rescues dog from frozen lake:

Congress, Daily Bread, Politics, Protests, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 2.23.25: Expect More of This

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Good morning.

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.

What happens when criticism of controversial policies comes before one of America’s most awkward Congressmen? Nick Rommel reports US Rep. Glenn Grothman faces hostile crowd at Oshkosh town hall meeting:

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.

Boos and shouts erupted around the room. When Grothman praised orders ending birthright citizenship and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the crowd only got louder.

See Nick Rommel, US Rep. Glenn Grothman faces hostile crowd at Oshkosh town hall meeting (‘Constituents ask congressman about Medicaid funding, power of Elon Musk’), Wisconsin Public Radio, February 21, 2025.

Outside the town hall:

Inside the town hall:

New video shows stranded father, teen son rescued from Utah mountain:

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.

Daily Bread, Federal Government, Michels, Trump, Trumpism

Daily Bread for 11.23.24: Half a Million’s Not Nearly Enough for a Cabinet Post

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 6:57, and sunset is 4:25, for 9 hours, 28 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 44.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1644, John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

One reads this morning that the family of Tim Michels, an out-of-state-livin’ man with an in-state business, gave $500,000 to Trump and yet a cabinet nomination still fell through:

Michels, his two brothers and each of their spouses gave a total of $503,600 to a Trump-aligned political action committee, a Trump fundraising committee and the Republican National Committee — all on the same day in late September.

Less than two months later, Trump — known for his transactional approach to politics — offered Michels a position in his cabinet as head of the U.S. Department of Transportation last Saturday, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The deal fell through, however, when Trump’s transition committee insisted that Michels divest his holdings as co-owner of Michels Corp., the family-owned construction business worth an estimated $3.9 billion. At that point, Trump pivoted and selected former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy for the post.

See Daniel Bice, Tim Michels was offered Trump cabinet job after his family donated more than $500,000, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 22, 2024.

That’s it? A mere half million? Michels spent far more than that trying to buy the governorship. He and his family should have understood that a Trump nomination for someone of means requires much, much larger donations than a half million.

Trump’s cabinet nominee Linda McMahon, the professional wrestling owner, received a nomination as Secretary of Education despite being named in a pending lawsuit over her alleged awareness of sexual abuse of boys as young as thirteen. The case is still in litigation, but she received a nomination anyway.

McMahon gave over ten million to Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC in 2024 alone.

Michels should have known: if eight figures will overcome pending allegations that McMahon ignored the sexual abuse of children, then seven or eight figures surely would have overcome a conflict of his business interests.

How odd about Michels: billions, and yet he still thinks small.

Voyagers’ Mission to the Outer Solar System (1977 Vintage Video):

From the archives of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this short film from 1977 describes the mission of the two Voyager spacecraft before they launched on their journey to Jupiter and Saturn later that year. It features early computer graphics, artist’s concepts of the outer solar system, and vintage footage of the antennas from NASA’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California, as well as mission control and a clean room at JPL. Voyager 1 and 2 are now the most distant human-made objects from Earth and the longest continually operating NASA spacecraft. After the twin Voyagers visited Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune as well. Both spacecraft are now in interstellar space, the space between stars.

Crapweasels, Crime, Daily Bread, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 11.22.24: Wisconsinite Offers Problem-Solving Skills Worthy of the Next Federal Administration

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 6:56, and sunset is 4:25, for 9 hours, 30 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 54 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene. U.S Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States afterwards.

Doubtless, the next Trump Administration will be looking to fill thousands of federal positions with supporters who have the same level of judgment as Mr. Trump himself. Wisconsin, it turns out, can supply a candidate for one of those positions. Alyssa Guzman reports on a fine gentleman from Green Lake who’d fit right in:

Screenshot from Borgwardt’s own ‘proof of life’ video from someplace far, far away. Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Via DailyMail.com.

Ryan Borgwardt, 45, purposely flipped his kayak on Green Lake on August 11, dumping his phone and belongings in the water before paddling to safety on an inflatable boat and e-biking more than 50 miles to Madison overnight, the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. 

They learned in October that Borgwardt had crossed the border into Canada a few days after his disappearance and had been communicating with an Uzbek woman who spoke Russian. 

….

Before his disappearance, he changed all the email addresses linked to his bank accounts and moved money to a foreign bank account.

Borgwardt’s devastated wife, Emily, and their three children, have been grieving their loss, believing for months he was likely dead.

She is now being urged to join support groups for women with ‘runaway husbands’ as her friends and community rally around her.

See Alyssa Guzman, Wisconsin husband who faked kayak accident death films ‘proof of life’ video after running away with mistress, Daily Mail, November 21, 2024.

‘An Uzbek woman who spoke Russian.’ Heart of gold, I wouldn’t wonder.

Borgwardt needs to return to America, find a word processor, and spiff up his résumé. He’s possessed of the top-shelf judgment that will fit well in the new federal administration.

Drone footage shows New Delhi cloaked in thick haze of toxic smog:

Daily Bread, Immigration, Presidential Race 2024, Trump

Daily Bread for 10.21.24: Fact Checking Trump on Immigration

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 7:16, and sunset is 6:02, for 10 hours, 46 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 77.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1897, the Yerkes Observatory is dedicated:

Founded by astronomer George Hale and located in Williams Bay, the Yerkes Observatory houses the world’s largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 inches. It was built through the largess of the tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, who rebuilt important parts of the Chicago transportation system after the fire. Situated in a 77-acre park on the shore of Lake Geneva, this observatory was the center for world astronomy in the early 20th century and invited a number of astronomers from around the world, including Japan, for scientific exchange.

Trump has said much about immigration. The Marshall Project has published Fact-checking Over 12,000 of Donald Trump’s Statements About Immigration. The fact check is detailed, and I’d encourage readers to review the full article. Below are summaries of the main points of the fact check:

TRUMP: “Under Border Czar Harris, our communities are being ravaged by migrant crime.”

FACT CHECK: According to a consistent, overwhelming amount of criminology research, immigrants to the United States, both legal and undocumented, have committed less crime than native-born Americans going all the way back to the 1870s.

TRUMP: “[South American countries are] emptying out their prisons and their mental institutions into the United States of America.”

FACT CHECK: Experts and journalists find no evidence that South American countries are intentionally freeing mentally ill and incarcerated people to infiltrate the U.S.

TRUMP: “Cases like Kate Steinle, murdered in San Francisco by a five-time deported illegal immigrant, or cases like Sarah Root… or my friend Jamiel Shaw who lost his incredible son…”

FACT CHECK: Trump relies on emotionally powerful anecdotes to portray an alleged crime wave by undocumented immigrants, but research shows that immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans.

TRUMP: “They want [unauthorized immigrants] voting, because they believe they’ll be voting for Democrats every single time.”

FACT CHECK: There is no evidence that Democratic immigration policies have led to any meaningful increase in noncitizen voting, or in any form of demographic advantage for the party.

TRUMP: [Democrats] want sanctuary cities, which means crime and drugs and death.”

FACT CHECK: Research consistently shows no link between sanctuary policies and increased crime rates. Instead, migrants in sanctuary cities are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens, with cities tending to experience decreases in property crime and homicide rates.

TRUMP: “Do you want to hear ‘The Snake?’…This was an old song that I revised… Think of it as the people that we’re letting in.

FACT CHECK: The daughters of Oscar Brown Jr., the original writer of the snake song, said Trump’s interpretation is dishonest and immigrants are not dangerous like the snake.

TRUMP: “We have no idea who they are. They want to come into our country. They may be ISIS. It may be the great Trojan Horse of all time. Who knows?”

FACT CHECK: Arab and Muslim refugees from the Middle East are unlikely to enter the U.S. due to rigorous vetting. In the rare cases they were accepted, they have been connected to planning or carrying out acts of terrorism in only a handful of instances since 1980.

TRUMP: “Illegal aliens coming into our country under Biden are treated better than our vets.”

FACT CHECK: While it’s true many undocumented people make use of public benefits, their monetary contribution to the country likely exceeds the cost of the benefits they consume, and they do not receive more benefits than citizens who are veterans.

TRUMP: “Democrats are the party of open borders, socialism, and crime, whether you like it or not.”

FACT CHECK: The claim that Democrats want open borders is false, since their recent policies focus on enforcing border laws and reducing illegal crossings.

TRUMP: “Dwight Eisenhower – nice guy – he moved a million and a half people out of the United States.”

FACT CHECK: Trump claims a 1950s-era deportation operation was “humane” and resulted in over a million deportations, but that number is contested, and the initiative took a steep humanitarian toll.

TRUMP: “They’ve taken the jobs of African Americans and Hispanics, and that was obvious to me. Next is gonna to be unions, you watch.”

FACT CHECK: Trump greatly overstates the tenuous connection between people who cross the border illegally to the “taking” of Black or union jobs.

TRUMP: “Believe me, it’s gonna work. Walls work.”

FACT CHECK: The reality of building a border wall is complex, and the barrier has proven to be ineffective, costly to taxpayers, and a driver for more dangerous modes of entry into the country. Historically, many undocumented immigrants overstay their legal visas, something a wall wouldn’t prevent.

TRUMP: “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats… They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

FACT CHECK: There is no evidence to support claims that Haitian migrants are abducting, killing or eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

State officials discuss election security concerns:

Daily Bread, Kamala Harris, Never Trump, Presidential Race 2024, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.12.24: Jill Stein (Catspaw for Trump)

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a chance of late afternoon showers and a high of 67. Sunrise is 7:05, and sunset is 6:16, for 11 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous, with 69.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1773,  America’s first insane asylum opens1.

Unlike her morbidly obese and delusional opponent, Kamala Harris is in excellent health:

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  1. Mar-a-Lago remains in operation to this day. (I’m teasing: Williamsburg, Virginia was the site of America’s first insane asylum; Mar-a-Lago will be the site of her last one.) ↩︎

America, Daily Bread, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia

Daily Bread for 10.8.24: For Mr. Trump, It’s Russia First

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 68. Sunrise is 7:00, and sunset is 6:23, for 11 hours, 22 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 28.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Tech Park Innovation Center Board meets at 8:30 AM, the city’s Finance Committee at 4:30 PM, and the Public Works Committee at 5 PM.

On this day in 1871, Peshtigo, Wisconsin is devastated by a fire which took 1,200 lives:

The fire caused over $2 million in damages and destroyed 1.25 million acres of forest. This was the greatest human loss due to fire in the history of the United States. The Peshtigo Fire was overshadowed by the Great Chicago fire which occurred on the same day, killing 250 people and lasting three days. While the Chicago fire is said to have started by a cow kicking over a lantern, it is uncertain how the Peshtigo fire began. 

Isaac Stanley-Becker, writing of Bob Woodward’s new book (War, about international crises), reports:

As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States and other countries confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use.

Putin, petrified of the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout — not for him, but for his American counterpart. He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward.

Putin, according to the book, told Trump, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”

America’s COVID test kits for Russia’s dictator.

Trump needs to revise one of his his oft-repeated slogans.

‘Russia First’ would be more accurate.

Gyms in Japan Now Offer Laundry, Karaoke, Etc.:

Bigotry, Daily Bread, Immigration, Mendacity, Never Trump, Presidential Race 2024, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.29.24: 8 Clips of Trump at Prairie du Chien, Only Yesterday

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:50, and sunset is 6:38, for 11 hours, 48 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 9.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1789, the United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

The Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center, where Trump held an indoor rally yesterday, is 142 miles by road from Whitewater. Not far at all. Whitewater has had a bitter taste of what grandstanding and lying against immigrants can mean. See The Local Press Conference that Was Neither Local Nor a Press Conference. We are fortunate that we have not experienced even worse lies about our city. See It Might Have Been Us.

Trump’s full remarks at that Prairie du Chien venue are available online. Aaron Rupar and Acyn have published pertinent clips from his remarks.

1. Trump lies about conditions in Wisconsin when he says that “I will liberate Wisconsin from this mass migrant invasion of murderers, rapists, hoodlums, drug dealers, thugs, and vicious gang members.”

Wisconsin is not beset this way; Whitewater is not beset this way. Whitewater, in particular, is a beautiful place to live. Indeed, I wish more people would move here. There’s no better place to live.

Trump’s claims about immigrant crime statistics nationwide are false. See Daniel Dale, Fact check: To attack Harris, Trump falsely describes new stats on immigrants and homicide:

Former President Donald Trump is wildly distorting new statistics on immigration and crime to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump falsely claimed Friday and Saturday that the statistics are specifically about criminal offenders who entered the US during the Biden-Harris administration; in reality, the figures are about offenders who entered the US over multiple decades, including during the Trump administration. And Trump falsely claimed that the statistics are specifically about people who are now living freely in the US; the figures actually include people who are currently in jails and prisons serving criminal sentences.

2. Trump insists “You gotta get these people back where they came from. You have no choice. You’re gonna lose your culture.” Which culture? He’s speaking to his audience, not all Americans. Many have forefathers who came here generations ago, before the Revolution, whether willingly or in enslavement — Trump’s culture is not their culture. He, himself, looks — and is — unacculturated. It is instead many newcomers from so many parts of the world who look — and are — properly acculturated. The nation benefits from their presence.

3. Trump insists that “these people [immigrants] are animals.” Immigrants aren’t animals; Trump’s crowd wants to believe immigrants are animals. Trump’s audiences feel better about themselves if they’re given his permission to feel worse about others.

4. Trump notices a fly in the room (“Oh, there’s a fly. I wonder where the fly came from”) and implies that immigrants brought the fly. There were no immigrants in the room, so perhaps that insect’s presence has another, more proximate cause.

5. Trump pits racial minority against racial minority: “They’re taking all of our Black population’s jobs.” Trump has a long history of racial discrimination in his businesses; his professed regard for Black workers is disingenuous.

6. Trump whines about Kamala Harris’s border remarks from Friday that “then I have to sit there and listen to her bullshit last night. And who puts it on? Fox News. And they shouldn’t be allowed to put it on.” He’s a weak & vain man who wants to talk but cannot brook the contrary speech of others. (Kamala Harris’s thorough assessment of immigration is available at Harris delivers campaign remarks in Arizona after visit to border. See also FREE WHITEWATER, VP Kamala Harris (and Republicans & Trump) on Border Security.)

7. Trump remarks that “global warming doesn’t work anymore, because it’s actually cooling.” He confuses a change in terminology with a change in environmental forces, and fallaciously implies that the former negates the veracity of the latter. Trump plays to the willing, delighted ignorance of his audience.

8. Trump contends that there were “40 to 50,000 people at least out there… It looked like when Lindbergh landed in New York. Do you remember that? Thousands of people… they’re probably leaving and walking home.” The entire city of Prairie du Chien has a population of only about 5,500. There were never forty to fifty thousand people outside. Indeed, the ordinary venue at which he spoke holds only 766 at capacity.

A small point, by the way, in light of his other remarks: Lindbergh did not land in New York — he landed in Paris.

Trump has his history, like so much else, backwards.