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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.) ↩︎

Banking & Finance, Daily Bread, Eric Hovde, Mendacity, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.9.24: Hovde Spreads Lies About Hurricane Response (Of Course He Does)

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 70. Sunrise is 7:01, and sunset is 6:21, for 11 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 37.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1986,  Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) launches as the fourth US television network.

FEMA debunks rumors like Hovde’s on funding, illegal immigrants ahead of Milton:

Hope Karnopp reports Senate candidate Eric Hovde circulates false Hurricane Helene claims debunked by FEMA:

Key Points

Hovde claimed FEMA is “out of money.” FEMA says it has enough money for immediate response and recovery needs.

FEMA money is not being diverted to illegal immigrants, and individual assistance is being distributed from a dedicated fund.

FEMA urges people to seek official, trusted sources of information.

Eric Hovde

Statement: “FEMA is out of money and doesn’t have money to transfer to those people affected by the hurricane … they used the money to assist illegal immigrants.”

Eric Hovde, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, has been circulating false claims about Hurricane Helene that federal officials are urging people to stop spreading. 

“FEMA is out of money and doesn’t have money to transfer to those people affected by the hurricane,” Hovde said in a video posted Thursday on X, formerly Twitter. “They used the money to assist illegal immigrants.”

It should be unsettling for the customers of California man Hovde’s Utah-based bank to have a liar for a CEO, but perhaps opinions differ even on that simple point.

IceNode: JPL’s Autonomous Underwater Robots:

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are testing a prototype of IceNode, a robot designed to access one of the most difficult-to-reach places on Earth. The team envisions a fleet of these autonomous robots deploying into unmapped underwater cavities beneath Antarctic ice shelves. There, they’d measure how fast the ice is melting — data that’s crucial to helping scientists accurately project how much global sea levels will rise. The IceNode team took a prototype robot for a test under Arctic sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, in March 2024.

Daily Bread, Eric Hovde, Sen. Baldwin, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.7.24: These Aren’t Subtle Men

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 65. Sunrise is 6:59, and sunset is 6:24, for 11 hours, 25 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 20.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1774, Wisconsin Becomes Part of… Quebec:

On this date Britain passed the Quebec Act, making Wisconsin part of the province of Quebec. Enacted by George III, the act restored the French form of civil law to the region. The Thirteen Colonies considered the Quebec Act as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as it nullified Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west. [Source: Avalon Project at the Yale Law School].

Dan Bice of the Journal Sentinel writes of Eric Hovde’s attack ad against Tammy Baldwin:

For the past month, Republican candidate Eric Hovde and his GOP allies have been pounding on Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin over her relationship with a New York money manager, Maria Brisbane.

Hovde’s ads suggest there is a likely conflict of interest between the two because of Baldwin’s work in the Senate and Brisbane’s job advising ultra-wealthy clients on their finances. Baldwin and Brisbane have been dating since 2018.

“Tammy Baldwin: in bed with Wall Street,” concludes one of Hovde’s TV spots, which features pictures of the pair.

Yeah, not terribly subtle.

Yeah, not terribly subtle. But, then, these aren’t subtle men. Attacks like this, however, won’t change the race’s outcome. If Hovde had more and better to offer Wisconsin, he’d already be using that more and better.

Previously at FREE WHITEWATER: Eric Hovde’s Banking Deal with a Cartel-Linked Mexican Bank, Hovde’s Evident, Ignorant Racism, Eric Hovde Treats Wisconsin as a Side Hustle,  It’s Not Going So Well for Hovde, Eric Hovde Should Fire His Political Consultants and Hire a Therapist, Tim Michels 2.0 Eric Hovde Announces U.S. Senate Run, and Another Vanity Candidate.  

Why Is This Island Filled With Rabbits?:

Imagine an island filled only with rabbits. Okunoshima is a small island in Japan’s Inland Sea. It’s called “Rabbit Island” because of the thousands of feral rabbits that roam the land. No one knows exactly how they got there, but since the end of World War II, the rabbits have been doing what they do best … multiplying.

Daily Bread, Elections, Harris-Walz, Never Trump, Politics, Presidential Race 2024, Republicans, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.4.24: Harris, Cheney, and Wisconsin Republicans

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Good morning.

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.

Liz Cheney joins Harris rally at historic birthplace of the GOP in swing state Wisconsin:

Daily Bread, Elections, Harris-Walz, Never Trump, Politics, Presidential Race 2024, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.3.24: Perhaps Accurate for a Moment with Much Ahead

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Good morning.

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:

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.

Java In zero-g! How the space coffee cup works:

Astronauts on the International Space Station have a zero-g cup for their java. Find out about it here.

Daily Bread, Elections, Local Government, Voting Rights, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 10.2.24: Clerk Lawfully Returns Drop Box that Wausau’s Mayor Removed

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:53, and sunset is 6:33, for 11 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is new, with none percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater will hold a Healthy Lakes Summit today at 5 PM.

On this day in 1980, Michael Myers becomes the first member of either chamber of Congress to be expelled since the Civil War.

Readers may recall that last week, Wausau Mayor Doug Diny removed “[a] drop box, located outside of City Hall, on Sunday and distributed a picture of himself doing it while wearing worker’s gloves and a hard hat. Diny is a conservative opponent to drop boxes. He insists he did nothing wrong.” See from FREE WHITEWATER Performative Voting Disruption in Wausau.

The Wausau City Clerk now has lawfully placed another ballot drop box outside her city hall. Scott Bauer follows his earlier reporting with Wisconsin city replaces ballot drop box after mayor carted it away:

An absentee ballot drop box that the mayor of a central Wisconsin city removed a week ago was back in place on Monday.

The Wausau city clerk said the box was available outside of city hall “for residents to submit absentee ballots, payments, and other important city requests as was intended.”

Mayor Doug Diny removed the drop box on Sept. 22 without consulting with the clerk, who has the authority under a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling legalizing drop boxes to make one available. They are not mandatory in the state.

Emphasis added. Wausau’s major is not a king1. He’s not even a duke, marquess, earl, viscount, or baron. The lawful authority over drop boxes was not his; he acted outside legal authority.

The law assigns the roles of public officials, and in a free society of limited government they do not (and should not) have more authority than the law allows.

Watch this octopus ‘punch’ a freeloading fish:

  1. A reminder to what’s left of Old Whitewater: this city did not have a mayor during your time, and if not a mayor then neither did Whitewater have a worthy and legitimate ‘unofficial mayor.’ When a few once declared someone an ‘unofficial mayor,’ the term was either a false & arrogant boast or an implicit insult against illegitimate overreaching. Those who thought the term praiseworthy confused praise with condemnation. ↩︎

Campaign Ads, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.30.24: Media Manipulation and Political Campaign Lies in 2024

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:51, and sunset is 6:36, for 11 hours, 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 4.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1859, Abraham Lincoln delivers remarks to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society at the Wisconsin State Fair. The last paragraph of that address remains is both haunting and hopeful:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet let us hope it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Wolf pups in California:

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.

Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Elections, Voting Rights, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.27.24: Performative Voting Disruption in Wausau

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:48, and sunset is 6:42, for 11 hours, 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 23.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1066, William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme river, beginning the Norman conquest of England.

Believe in election conspiracies long enough (like the notion that ballot drop boxes lead to fraud), run for office on that theory, and soon you’ll be mugging for the camera while carting away a ballot drop box.

Scott Bauer reports Wisconsin district attorney pursuing investigation into mayor’s removal of absentee ballot drop box:

In this photo provided by Wausau Mayor Doug Diny, Diny uses a dolly to remove the city’s lone drop box from in front of City Hall in Wausau, Wis., on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (Doug Diny via AP)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin district attorney said Thursday that her office is pursuing an investigation into the removal of an absentee ballot drop box by the mayor of Wausau.

Mayor Doug Diny removed the drop box, located outside of City Hall, on Sunday and distributed a picture of himself doing it while wearing worker’s gloves and a hard hat. Diny is a conservative opponent to drop boxes. He insists he did nothing wrong.

The drop box was locked and no ballots were in it. The city clerk notified Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon and she said in an email on Thursday that she is requesting an official investigation with the assistance of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Wetzsteon said she was waiting to hear back from DOJ on her request.

A spokesperson for DOJ did not immediately return a message Thursday.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers weighed in on Thursday, calling the removal of the drop box “wrong.” Evers said it should be restored “immediately”:

“Drop box voting is safe, secure, and legal,” Evers posted on the social media platform X. “As elected officials, we should be working to make it easier—not harder—for every eligible Wisconsinite to cast their ballot. That’s democracy.”

Diny wears a hard hat in his posed publicity photo. It’s a smart move — you never know when an incontinent pigeon might be flying overhead. Honest to goodness — he looks ridiculous to the sensible, and sensible only to the ridiculous.

International Space Station flies directly over massive Hurricane Helene in time-lapse:

The International Space Station flew directly over Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26, 2024. Full Story: https://www.space.com/hurricane-helen… Major impacts from inland flooding is expected along the path of Helene well after landfall, according to statement from NOAA. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: NASA | edited by Steve Spaleta (https://x.com/stevespaleta)

Daily Bread, Fall, The Best Season, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.26.24: For Fall, the Fall Color Report

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:47, and sunset is 6:44, for 11 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent, with 31.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1789,  George Washington appoints Thomas Jefferson the first United States Secretary of State.

Travel Wisconsin offers a 2024 Fall Color Report:

Here’s to Chasing Fall in Wisconsin:

Wisconsin is waiting to welcome you this fall. It’s a time to breathe in the autumn air, discover new trails together and experience the delights of Wisconsin. Plan a colorful road trip with your favorite people to sample local craft cider at an apple orchard or tour a cranberry bog, an experience you won’t forget. On your way, take in the kaleidoscope of leaves that blanket every corner of the state. Here’s to those who Wisconsin. Explore more fall fun at https://bit.ly/3WLK1rZ.

Conflicts of Interest, Daily Bread, Ethics, Press, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 9.24.24: Conflicts, What Conflicts?

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 69. Sunrise is 6:45, and sunset is 6:47, for 12 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 52.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.

On this day in 1957, President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.

Locally, statewide, and nationally there has been a decline in conflict of interest standards. Conflicts, what conflicts? We’re all pals here, aren’t we? Consider an egregious case involving the WISGOP and the top-flight-and-always-above-board New York Post. Dan Bice reports New York Post campaign reporter was a paid consultant for the Wisconsin GOP:

Starting in June, the New York Post began publishing stories on the presidential, Senate and congressional races in Wisconsin as part of an initiative on battleground states.

But the Post — a right-leaning newspaper owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch — picked a reporter for the project with strong ties to Republicans and conservatives in Wisconsin.

In fact, Amy Sikma was paid twice last year by the state Republican Party for consulting work. She was also a campaign consultant for former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly’s 2023 campaign, previously ran a primary contest for a GOP candidate and worked for an organization that opposes same-sex marriage.

Neither her profile on the Post website nor her stories disclose any of these ties to readers.

The result: Sikma has published a series of stories criticizing presidential candidate Kamala Harris, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, former U.S. Rep. Peter Barca and congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke — all Democrats.

In fact, it appears that one of her stories critical of Baldwin was investigated and dropped by another Post reporter earlier in the year — only to be revived and published by Sikma. The story has been widely touted by Baldwin’s opponent, Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde.

Only the best people…

Another dog killer heard from; updating his résumé for a run as the next governor of South Dakota?

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

Daily Bread for 9.22.24: National Geographic’s Thunderstorms 101

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Good morning.

Fall begins in Whitewater with thunderstorms and a high of 70. Sunrise is 6:42, and sunset is 6:51, for 12 hours, 8 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 73.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, Pres. Lincoln releases a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

There is beauty and power in the natural order. Today’s storm is a fitting beginning to Fall in Whitewater. Quite lovely. National Geographic offers a primer on thunderstorms:

At any moment, about 2,000 thunderstorms are occurring worldwide. Learn how thunderstorms form, what causes lightning and thunder, and how these violent phenomena help balance the planet’s energy and electricity.

Via Cats of Yore:


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

Daily Bread for 9.21.24: Vice President Kamala Harris Campaign Rally in Madison

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 87. Sunrise is 6:41, and sunset is 6:52, for 12 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 83.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1942,  the Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

Friday’s Vice President Kamala Harris Campaign Rally in Madison, Wisconsin:

Vice President Kamala Harris in Madison, Wisconsin, as she speaks about what is at stake in this election. Help Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz protect our fundamental freedoms and defeat Donald Trump. Take action at go.kamalaharris.com.

Cats with jobs:

Daily Bread, Eric Hovde, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 9.20.24: Eric Hovde’s Banking Deal with a Cartel-Linked Mexican Bank

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 6:40, and sunset is 6:54, for 12 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 91.0 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 2011, the United States military ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

Eric Hovde’s banking deal with a troubled Mexican bank is in the news. Dan Bice of the Journal Sentinel writes:

Banco Azteca, the 10th largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of problems in recent years.

Accused in past news stories of having links to the Mexican drug cartel.

Dropped as a financial partner by some U.S. banks because of “risk and compliance concerns.”

And now caught up in a Texas bribery scheme with an American congressman.

But Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, doesn’t mind doing business with it.

In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four airplane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” records show. Hovde, who is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is chairman and CEO of Sunwest.

Oh, brother: nothing says Wisconsinite like a California-livin’ CEO of a Utah bank making deals with a cartel-linked Mexican bank.

Previously at FREE WHITEWATER: Hovde’s Evident, Ignorant Racism, Eric Hovde Treats Wisconsin as a Side Hustle,  It’s Not Going So Well for Hovde, Eric Hovde Should Fire His Political Consultants and Hire a Therapist, Tim Michels 2.0 Eric Hovde Announces U.S. Senate Run, and Another Vanity Candidate.  

Austrian team claims victory in hot air balloon race across Europe: