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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.

Daily Bread, Harris-Walz, Immigration, Kamala Harris, Never Trump, Presidential Race 2024, Trump

Daily Bread for 9.28.24: VP Kamala Harris (and Republicans & Trump) on Border Security

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:49, and sunset is 6:40, for 11 hours, 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 15.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1781, French and American forces backed by a French fleet begin the Battle of Yorktown.

Kamala Harris Describes Trump’s Opposition to a Border Bill:

Republicans Admit that Trump Killed the Border Bill:

Even Trump Admits He Killed the Border Bill:

VP Kamala Harris Speaks at Length on a Strong Border Plan:

Business, Confidence Schemes, Daily Bread, Dog-Crap Company, Trump

Daily Bread for 9.4.24: Trump Media, Nothing But a Meme Stock, Keeps Falling

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:24, and sunset is 7:22, for 12h 58m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission holds a Training/Review of Open Meeting Laws & Visioning Session at 6 PM.

On this day in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, found Google.

NBC reports that Trump Media, owner of Trump’s money-losing Truth Social venture, has “fallen to its lowest levels since the company started trading publicly following a merger in March. Former President Donald Trump and other major investors will be allowed to sell their shares in the Truth Social parent company later this month.”

Like his political ideology, Trump’s business ventures are gaudy confidence schemes.

The real reason the morning train was delayed:

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City, Daily Bread, Elections, Immigration, Nativism, Politics, Presidential Race 2024, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.2.24: Did Trump’s Waukesha Visit Include a Mention of Whitewater? No

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:45 and sunset 7:57 for 14h 12m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 37.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2000, President Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.

Mr. Trump was in Waukesha yesterday.

Did Trump’s Wednesday visit include a mention of Whitewater (as his 4.2.24 Green Bay visit did)?

No. (The Republican National Committee press release announcing Trump’s Waukesha visit, however, did include an express reference to Whitewater. There was, therefore, reason to be attentive to his remarks.)

For now, Wisconsin’s rising nativist sentiment hasn’t brought yet another false, mendacious use of Whitewater’s conditions.

So much the better for this community that Mr. Trump kept the city’s name out of his remarks.

The state & national distortions of last fall & winter would prove slight as against state and national distortions this fall.

May 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA:

City, Daily Bread, Elections, Immigration, Nativism, Politics, Presidential Race 2024, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.1.24: Will Trump’s Waukesha Visit Include a Mention of Whitewater?

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:46 and sunset 7:56 for 14h 09m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 48.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4 PM and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the Asiatic Squadron of the United States Navy destroys the Pacific Squadron of the Spanish Navy after a seven-hour battle. Spain loses all seven of its ships, and 381 Spanish sailors die. There are no American vessel losses or combat deaths.

So, one reads that Mr. Trump will be in Waukesha today. Trump mentioned Whitewater by name while in Green Bay on 4.2.24. If he’s going to keep Whitewater in the headlines, another Wisconsin visit would be a prime opportunity for him to do so.

Will it prove true that Trump again uses Wisconsin’s Rising Nativist Sentiment [to] Keep Whitewater in the News?

Let’s see what happens.

Relocating bees from a Washington, D.C. backyard:

Congress, Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Trump, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 4.12.24: So Much for Conservative Populism Before MAGA

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 58. Sunrise is 6:15 and sunset 7:34 for 13h 19m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 18.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President upon Roosevelt’s death.

When Rep. Mike Gallagher decided to resign from Congress, two longstanding conservative populists announced they were running for the open 8th Congressional District seat. See Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher Heads for the Exits and Rep. Mike Gallagher Knows that MAGA Will Be Someone Else’s Headache Soon. The two tenured WISGOP populists running in that district have now learned that tenure as conservatives doesn’t matter. It’s sycophancy to Mr. Trump that matters:

With the support of former President Donald Trump, former gas station owner Tony Wied of De Pere entered the race this week for Wisconsin’s open 8th Congressional District — making him the third Republican candidate to announce. 

Wied, who owned six Dino Stop gas stations and convenience stores in Wisconsin until he sold them in 2022, is positioning himself as an outsider, who would look to deliver the “America First change this country needs” in Congress. He officially launched his campaign at an event in Green Bay on Monday evening. 

“Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District is hungry for an America First outsider,” Wied said in a statement announcing his campaign on Tuesday morning. “For too long, career politicians have failed to deliver the results we desperately need.” 

“I look forward to earning the trust of Wisconsin voters and taking the lessons I’ve learned from three decades of operating businesses in Northeast Wisconsin to Washington, DC,” Wied added.

Two Republicans — former state Sen. Roger Roth of Appleton and current state Sen. André Jacque of De Pere — had already entered the race for the seat, which is open following the surprise departure of U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is set to resign next month. 

Conservative populism is roughly synonymous with MAGA, but only up to the moment the MAGA leader decides otherwise. Afterward, as Jacque and Roth have now learned, past tenure as an ideological stalwart melts before the MAGA leader’s personal preferences.

Japan to give DC more cherry trees:

Elections, Law, Laws/Regulations, Trump, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.23.24: Wisconsin Ethics Commission Alleges Illegal Scheme by Trump Fundraising Committee and Rep. Janel Brandtjen

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 Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 6:39 and sunset 5:37 for 10h 57m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.3% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1987, Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.   WisPolitics.com…

Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, DeSantis, Politics, Populists, Presidential Race 2024, Republicans, Trump

Daily Bread for 5.24.23: For Trump & DeSantis, It’s One or Neither

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Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:23 AM and sunset 8:20 PM for 14h 56m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.3% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Board of Review meets at 6:30 PM.  On this day in 1961, Freedom…