Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 10 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 5:15 PM. On this day in…
WISGOP
Budget, Daily Bread, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 7.7.25: ‘Bipartisanship’ in Wisconsin Is Simply the Vulnerability of the WISGOP Under Fair Maps
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1928, sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th…
Budget, City, Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 7.3.25: Vos Admits That Worry Over National GOP Policy Compelled WISGOP Deal With Evers
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 15 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 57.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1863, the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates in Confederate defeat…
Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 7.1.25: On the State Budget Deal, Evers Seems to Win Most
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 17 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 37.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg begins. There’s a deal this morning between…
Budget, Daily Bread, Speaker Vos, State Government, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 6.25.25: It’s Not a Wisconsin Budget Negotiation, It’s Another WISGOP Display of Bad Faith Claims
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea. One reads…
Congress, Daily Bread, Fair Maps, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 6.23.25: Noticing Wisconsin Congressional Redistricting Before 2026
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 92. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM and the Urban Forestry Commission meets…
Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 6.13.25: WISGOP Rejects Additional Court Security
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:15 and sunset is 8:34, for 15 hours, 19 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 94.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1983, Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave…
Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 6.5.25: Seeing Once Again That Wisconsin’s Not a Bipartisan Environment
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:30, for 15 hours, 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at…
Conspiracy Theories, Courts, Daily Bread, Gableman, Law, Low Standards, Misconduct, Speaker Vos, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 4.20.25: Gableman Was an Embarrassment Yet Vos Appointed Him Anyway
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with scattered afternoon showers, and a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:04 and sunset is 7:43, for 13 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 55.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1836, following earlier debate, Congress passes and President Andrew Jackson approves a resolution creating the Wisconsin Territory with an effective date of July 3, 1836.
At Wisconsin Watch, Tom Kertscher chronicles former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s history of disreputable conduct long before Robin Vos appointed him in 2021 as a special council. It shows how much was known of Gableman’s unworthy conduct, including insobriety, by ranking members of the WISGOP:
In October 2008, just two months after Gableman was sworn in [as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court], the state Judicial Commission filed a complaint against him, alleging his ad violated the state judicial code of conduct.
The commission dropped the case in 2010 after the Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 on what to do about the complaint. Gableman didn’t participate. The other three conservative justices said that while the ad was “distasteful,” its statements were “objectively true” and protected by the First Amendment.
….
Ethics complaints were filed with two state agencies over Gableman’s acceptance of two years of free legal services, likely worth tens of thousands of dollars, in the case filed against him over the Butler ad. As a justice, Gableman did not recuse himself from cases argued by Michael Best & Friedrich, the law firm that provided his free legal aid. He ruled in favor of the firm’s clients five times, more than any other justice during his tenure on the court, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. No action was taken against him from those complaints.
Wisconsin Watch has learned that while a justice, Gableman attended the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland — in possible violation of judicial rules prohibiting attendance at party conventions — and while there, he appeared intoxicated and was escorted out of the convention hall after causing disturbances, according to two Wisconsin Republicans in attendance and a third briefed on the incident shortly after it happened.
Former longtime state GOP leader Steve King recalled then-U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy telling him that Gableman “has a problem and we need to get him back to his hotel.”
These WISGOP men knew then, but are only talking now.
Vos — years later — has regrets about selecting Gableman as special counsel:
Gableman was paid $117,000, more than double the $55,000 that had been budgeted, according to a previously unreported document Wisconsin Watch obtained from the Assembly clerk.
“He paid no attention to detail, he delegated almost all the work to somebody else and very poor follow-through,” Vos told Wisconsin Watch. “It seemed like Mike Gableman was more concerned about the money he was earning as opposed to finding the truth.”
See Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has become hyper political. The rise and fall of Michael Gableman’s career shows how that happened (‘The former Supreme Court justice has agreed to surrender his law license after years of avoiding consequences for his behavior, including a previously unreported incident at the 2016 Republican National Convention’), Wisconsin Watch, April 16, 2025.
A person of normal judgment would have known that Michael Gableman wasn’t the man for any serious job. Gableman is a former justice and past embarrassment to Wisconsin. Robin Vos, by contrast, remains a current legislator and ongoing embarrassment.
See also Henry Redman, Gableman’s law license suspended for three years, Wisconsin Examiner, April 7, 2025 and from FREE WHITEWATER, Justice Comes for Former Justice Gableman and Vos Catches on Years Too Late.
How High Can Easter Bunnies Iggies Jump?:
Authoritarian Populism, Conservative Populism, Conspiracy Theories, Daily Bread, Decay, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 4.17.25: The Extremism of, and Within, the WISGOP
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 67. Sunrise is 6:09 and sunset is 7:39, for 13 hours, 30 minutes of daytime. The moon a waning gibbous with 81.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1970, the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
The WISGOP has long tolerated, and encouraged, crackpot theories and extremism (e.g., COVID denialism, lies about national elections, lies about state elections, nativism, and junk health & nutritional claims). Now, however, the party’s leaders find the miasma too much to tolerate as it wafts toward their leadership:
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has created a new process to oust county party officials and members of a state executive committee if they harass or publicly defame state party officials or Republican lawmakers.
The changes are being attacked by local GOP chairs who’ve been at odds with state party leadership, but a top Republican says the party is “trying to take the temperature down” when it comes to contentious votes on party business.
The changes were approved by the GOP’s state executive committee Sunday. They state that while volunteers and “grassroots members” have the right to elect leaders at the county and congressional district level, those individuals “should be working in coordination to achieve the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s goals and mission.”
A code of conduct requires local, regional and state GOP leaders to treat GOP officials with respect, support candidates endorsed by the Republican Party and not engage in “sexual, verbal, or physical harassment” of fellow Republican Party members.
(Emphasis added.)
See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin GOP creates process to remove local party officials for harassment, defaming Republican leaders (‘Changes come after some GOP county chairs have criticized state party and called for Chair Brian Schimming to resign’), Wisconsin Public Radio, April 17, 2025.
The party is so morally degenerated that it now needs a rule (ostensibly) to protect its leaders from the very conduct that rank-and-file party members have inflicted on others for years. From Republican to Populist to Authoritarian, the WISGOP has been a descent into lumpen members’ threats against supposed ideological enemies for years.
For those types, there’s no greater shudder of excitement than that…
Microplastic pollution found in insect casing from 1971:
Daily Bread, Economics, Economy, Hypocrisy, Ignorance, Tariffs, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 4.11.25: Clueless and Cowed
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:19 and sunset is 7:33, for 13 hours, 14 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1945, American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp:
A detachment of troops of the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, from the 6th Armored Division, part of the U.S. Third Army, and under the command of Captain Frederic Keffer, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945 at 3:15 p.m. (now the permanent time of the clock at the entrance gate). The soldiers were given a hero’s welcome, with the emaciated survivors finding the strength to toss some liberators into the air in celebration.
Later in the day, elements of the U.S. 83rd Infantry Division overran Langenstein, one of a number of smaller camps comprising the Buchenwald complex. There, the division liberated over 21,000 prisoners, ordered the mayor of Langenstein to send food and water to the camp, and hurried medical supplies forward from the 20th Field Hospital.
We hear so much from this rightwing party, from its leaders and activists across the nation, state, and city about low taxes. And yet, and yet, they supported the leader who said time and again that he would raise tariffs. These tariffs are taxes on Americans. Across Wisconsin, the Congressional Republicans who’d scream and squeal at the very mention of taxes are now silent:
A handful of Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to give Congress more oversight over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, but Wisconsin’s Republicans are not among them.
In interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state’s GOP delegation largely dismissed questions about legislative oversight, instead praising the president for imposing the levies — some of which were temporarily paused this week — on scores of foreign trading partners.
Sen. Ron Johnson, the only member of the delegation to publicly express concerns over the tariffs, on Thursday predicted measures aimed at giving Congress a bigger role in the tariff process would fail. And Wisconsin’s House members stood in line with Trump’s moves this week that have shaken global markets.
“I like the way it’s playing out, actually,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said Tuesday, when asked if Congress should play an oversight role on the implementation of the tariffs. “I think after a couple days, it’s playing out pretty well.”
See Lawrence Andrea, Wisconsin Republicans silent on tariff oversight as colleagues push for Congress to have a say, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 11, 2025.
Fitzgerald: not merely ignorant, but confidently proud of it.
Note well: At no time, over these many years, have any economic concerns that I have expressed at FREE WHITEWATER ever been about my situation; this libertarian blogger has no personal complaints to make. (Nor would I make them here, even if I had any.)
It’s simply the case that so very many loud & proud anti-tax men are silent on tariffs (being too ignorant or too hypocritical to admit how destructive they are).
World’s oldest gorilla celebrates 68th birthday at Berlin zoo:
Campaign Ads, Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Musk, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 3.5.25: No Time Like the Present for an Ad Against Musk
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with 42. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset is 5:49, for 11 hours, 26 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 38.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Starin Park Water Tower Committee meets at 6 PM and the Landmarks Commission meets at 7 PM.
On this day in 1770, at the Boston Massacre, five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War five years later.
I’m not a Democrat, but from my NeverTrump perspective, there’s no time like the present for a ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign:
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is working to tie state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel to Elon Musk with an ad campaign titled the “People v. Musk.”
The move comes as Musk’s prominence has grown in national politics for his role cutting government spending under President Donald Trump, and after groups backed by Musk have spent millions attacking Schimel’s opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
The first ad from what the state Democratic Party is calling a “seven-figure” campaign references the firing of air traffic controllers and federal funding cuts initiated by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The ad repeatedly shows video of video of Musk making a straight-armed gesture on the day of Trump’s inauguration.
See Rich Kremer, Democrats launch ‘People v Musk’ ad campaign in Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Wisconsin Public Radio, March 5, 2025.
It’s lawful to spend money on the race, and it’s lawful to criticize others for their spending on the race. Both are true.
Musk, however, is only appealing to people who will accept anything in the place of a good thing. Keep going.
See also FREE WHITEWATER, Musk’s PAC Puts in Six Figures for Schimel and Musk Drops More on Schimel in Wisconsin (Of Course He Does).
Daily Bread, Politics, Speaker Vos, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 2.26.25: Sure, Whatever, but Trump Is Only ‘Tight’ with Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
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:
Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Politics, Populists, Schimel, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 2.24.25: Brad Schimel Experiences the Insatiable Nature of Populism
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 5:58, for 11 hours 0 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM, and resumes open session at 7 PM.
On this day in 1917, the U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom reports to Pres. Wilson on the contents of the German Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declared war on the United States.
Populism is a restless and relentless group movement, historically sometimes of the left, sometimes of the right. In our time, we have conservative populists, Trumpists, MAGA, or however else they choose to describe themselves. Their restlessness, their insatiability for ever-purer expressions of the movement, leads to splintering into new factions. (Dark MAGA is like this: Trump no longer gives some of these gentlemen the thrill that Musk now does.)
Nor does a moment like this does respect institutional boundaries; on the contrary, it seeks to overturn institutional standards no matter how sound.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, much the MAGA man, now finds that other populists really don’t care much for the WISGOP institutionalism on which his campaign depends:
WASHINGTON – At a recent campaign stop, conservative state Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel acknowledged a “turf war” playing out among Wisconsin Republicans.
He said the party is “at risk of becoming divided” but suggested the time to have those discussions is after the high court election on April 1.
“This battle is going on,” Schimel said, according to audio obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “My message to everybody is … I need 100% of the conservative vote. We all have to grab an oar and work at this. If we don’t, we lose.”
“So can you shut it down for 49 more days, and let’s win this race,” he added. “And then you know what? Then duke it out.”
The infighting Schimel referenced is a behind-the-scenes clash between the conservative dark money group Turning Point Action and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The simmering tensions between the two camps are largely over the party’s infrastructure and leadership in the key battleground state. It’s a spat that has grown increasingly public following the November election and appears to be coming to a head as county parties and congressional districts elect their leadership for the next two years.
See Lawrence Andrea, Behind the scenes of the Supreme Court race, a ‘turf war’ simmers between Wisconsin GOP and Turning Point, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 24, 2025.
In his plea, Schimel reveals himself a nervous politico first, and a judge second. That’s unsurprising, because he admits that as a judge, he’s been slothful. See Brad Schimel’s Work Ethic (“I’m home for dinner most nights now,” he said. “I shoot in two sporting clays leagues. Or I was until I made this announcement (to run for the Supreme Court). I was shooting in two shooting clays leagues a week. I was doing all this, playing band rehearsals.”)
Schimel’s concern reminds one of the oft-repeated story of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party:
From an October 2015 tweet by Adrian Bott (@cavalorn) that went viral: “I never thought leopards would eat MY face,” sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
How AI is revealing the language of the birds: