What’s Next for Aaron Rodgers?

 Yeah, what's next? I thought it was going to be the NFC divisional championship round.

But nah. Green Bay chocked. At home. In 3 degrees with the windchill factor. Jimmy Garopolo had never played a game under 32 degrees. Rodgers? He's won 34 under 32. 

I wasn't even watching that much in the second half, instead looking at Twitter on my phone. But then I saw that last 49ers drive and the winning field goal as time expired, and --- I couldn't believe it!

What a game, dang.

Watch, at Sports Illustrated, "49ers vs. Packers Divisional Round Highlights - NFL 2021."

At at the Wall Street Journal, "The 49ers Stunned the Packers. What’s Next for Aaron Rodgers?":

The 49ers Stunned the Packers. What’s Next for Aaron Rodgers? San Francisco’s 13-10 upset over Green Bay upended the NFL’s playoffs. It also reinvigorated the drama about the star quarterback’s future.

Aaron Rodgers spent much of 2021 in a standoff with the Green Bay Packers. When Rodgers finally arrived at training camp, wearing enormous sunglasses and a T-shirt featuring a character from “The Office,” he began a season unlike any quarterback in NFL history.

He was at the center of culture wars. He played as well or better than every other quarterback in football. Then he was booted from the playoffs after just one game.

The Packers were upset in the divisional round of the playoffs 13-10 by the San Francisco 49ers—a shocker that ousted the team that recorded the best record in the sport and the quarterback favored to win Most Valuable Player. On a freezing, snowy night in Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, the Packers scored on the opening possession and then were stymied for the rest of the game before a shocking finish that left them out in the cold.

The result doesn’t just upend the rest of the NFL playoffs, with the favorite now out of the picture. It also raises questions about Rodgers, the Packers and their future together after a year of drama.

“I’m going to take some time and have conversations with the folks around here,” Rodgers said afterward of his future. “It’s a little shocking for sure.”

Rodgers and the Packers seemed to be in control Saturday. They marched down the field for a touchdown on the opening possession. The 49ers went three-and-out on their first four possessions. When San Francisco got close to scoring on their fifth possession, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw an interception. The Packers had a field goal blocked at the end of the half to go into the break with a 7-0 lead.

Even as Rodgers continued to struggle to move the ball after that first series, the Packers appeared to be in control. When Green Bay extended its lead to 10-3 in the early fourth quarter, the 49ers still seemed lost offensively while Green Bay’s defense looked unbreakable in the frigid conditions. On a fourth-and-1 in Green Bay territory midway through the fourth quarter, the 49ers went for it—and got stuffed.

That’s when the script flipped and the tidal wave of an upset began building.

On the possession after Green Bay’s fourth-down stop, the 49ers blocked a punt—its second blocked kick of the game—and returned it for a touchdown. Suddenly, the game was tied 10-10.

The Packers went three-and-out on their ensuing possession. The 49ers got the ball back with 3:20 left in the game. That’s all they needed. The game ended as Robbie Gould’s 45-yard kick sailed through the uprights, clinching a playoff stunner on the iconic grounds in Green Bay.

The result sent the 49ers to the NFC Championship and plunged the Packers into another existential crisis after exiting the playoffs early yet again with Rodgers.

Rodgers entered this season as the reigning MVP. He’s also the favorite to win it this year after leading the Packers to the No. 1 seed in the NFC. But he has made little secret of his past concerns about Green Bay management and those same doubts seem destined to resurface after an unexpectedly early playoff loss.

Rodgers and the Packers were the central drama of the NFL offseason, with rumors swirling that the star quarterback wanted out of Green Bay. For a time there were doubts that Rodgers, who turned 38 in December, would come back.

When he did, he became the central drama of the regular season, as well. After initially saying he was “immunized” against Covid-19, he later missed a game after testing positive and being placed into protocols because he had not been vaccinated. He continued to comment about the coronavirus pandemic while provoking detractors by doing things like wearing a sweatshirt that had the words “cancel culture” crossed out.

Yet he also continued to play quarterback at an extraordinary level. He threw 37 touchdowns with just four interceptions. By any metric he ranked among the most effective and efficient quarterbacks in the league.

The Packers won the NFC, even though they lost a game in Rodgers’ absence after his positive Covid test, and received a first-round bye.

Rodgers posted solid numbers again against the 49ers. He finished the game 20-for-29 for 225 yards, though he took five sacks. And when the game was done, the Rodgers-led offense had only put up 10 points.

This marks yet another season when Rodgers and the Packers have fallen short of expectations. Rodgers has won one Super Bowl. Yet when he has won three MVPs—and appears to be on the verge of a fourth—it has raised questions of why the team has struggled to reach that plateau again.

“There are a lot of decisions to be made,” Rodgers said. “I don’t want to be part of a rebuild.”

“Certainly, we want him back here,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said afterward. “Certainly, I’m extremely disappointed that we couldn’t get over the hump.”...

Still more.

 

John Kass on Kyle Rittenhouse

See, "If only Kyle Rittenhouse could ask Biden and media: “Have you no sense of decency?”":

A jury has loudly issued “not guilty” verdicts in the malignant political prosecution of Illinois teenager Kyle Rittenhouse.

And now, what next?

What happens to corporate media—and its phony social justice warrior pundits–who savaged Rittenhouse and used race, when race had nothing to do with the case? They egged on the mob that screamed for the young man’s head on a pike, and now they’re still at it even after the verdict. They got their clicks out of him, and now they expect what, exactly? That we’ll forget how they howled even before the first witness testified?

And what of the politicians, from President Joe Biden on down, who falsely and maliciously defamed the teenager as a “white supremacist” before trial, though no such evidence was ever presented. Biden and company fed him to the mob, stepping on justice for votes.

Can you sue a president for libel, even a witless meat puppet like The Big Guy?

The thing is tragic. Two men are dead. I don’t consider him a hero. He’ll carry the stain of this forever. The kid should never have been there that night with his gun in the chaos of the riots in Kenosha. But he was there, as the governor and mayor pulled law enforcement back, leaving Kenosha’s streets to the violent.

And in America, for now at least, you can still defend your life when a mob tries to take it from you.

At least the jury got it right. They heard the evidence. They considered the testimony and acquitted Rittenhouse. He shot three men in self defense, one who tried to bash his head in with a skateboard, one who tried to take his gun, and the third who pointed a gun at him. Two of them died. And again, the mayor and the governor had withdrawn law enforcement, turning the streets over to the rioters who burned buildings that some fools in media called a “mostly peaceful” protest.

The prosecution revealed itself to be purely political, rushing to charge Rittenhouse before all the facts were in. And they failed.

If they’d succeeded, the kid who cried on the witness stand could have been sentenced to life in prison. How would he survive inside, a kid like that? He wouldn’t. A kid like that wouldn’t survive five minutes. The media that twisted and shaped the facts to suit a political narrative, and politicians who benefitted from narrative support would have moved on with their lives. And as they heaped glory on themselves, Rittenhouse, if put in a state prison, would be dead or wish he were dead every minute of his life.

So he’s free. I wonder if Biden and his Democrat and media allies ever read “The Ox-Bow Incident” that was made into a great classic movie in the early 1940s. It is about a posse that becomes righteous and lynches three innocent men. I suspect a few politicians and media read it, at least those who read more than their own Twitter feeds. And I’ve got to believe Biden read it, and watched the movie. He certainly was lucid enough back then to have handled it. Now, I don’t think so.

For years “The Ox-Bow Incident” was a favorite of liberal teachers and professors, who had lived through the McCarthy era and the “Red Scare,” when it was the political right making accusations and stoking anger through media. Sen. McCarthy’s political reign of terror ended as he hunted for Communists in the U.S. Army. Joseph N. Welch, the lawyer for the Army, confronted McCarthy at a public hearing with this withering question:

“Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

Things change and parallels are conveniently forgotten or ignored. Because now it is the left that goes out hunting for witches in the Armed Forces. Democrats shut their mouths and don’t dare ask the inquisitors if they’ve lost their sense of decency. Careerist generals, their fingers in the wind, have eagerly gone woke reading “White Fragility.”

Now that the jury has cleared Rittenhouse, mealy mouths pipe up and ask us to move past it all. I don’t want us to move past it. And I make a simple request: Don’t forget what politicians, prosecutors and media have done.

If you do want to forget what happened, to make things easier for yourself, at least be honest about the cost of forgetting. Forget, move past it, and you’re inviting the next mob to grab blind Lady Justice by the hair, strip off her blindfold, and bend her to their political will. And if their politics aren’t your politics, you will pay for it. That’s where America is now, lusting for tribal justice, not blind justice.

Imagine your son or daughter in the middle of it all, or yourself or your friends, your neighbors professing innocence and being drowned out by the political barking dogs. In this case, the Kenosha jury stood up, and refused to cave to pressure. They were deliberate. They were careful. They saw that prosecutorial overreach had little in common to the reality they’d lived through in Kenosha. But the next time? Who can say? Is that what you want for America?

If you don’t want to forget, all you have to do is Google your favorite social justice warrior pundit and search out what they said and wrote in August of 2020, when the streets of Kenosha were on fire.

I’d recommend that you also read Miranda Devine of The New York Post. She recently compiled a list of ten debunked lies that were told about Rittenhouse. Or read Bari Weis on Substack, “The Media’s Verdict on Kyle Rittenhouse: Why so many got this story so wrong.”

The media got it wrong the way they’ve gotten other stories wrong, and for the same reasons, from media attacks on innocent Covington, Ky. teenager Nicholas Sandman, or media stubbornly pushing the false “Russia Collusion” narrative that is now completely falling apart. Will the Washington Post and the New York Times return their Pulitzer Prizes that were based on the Russia Hoax lie? They should, immediately. But they won’t...

Still more.

 

Sixth Victim Has Died After Deadly Car Attack at Waukesha Christmas Parade (VIDEO)

One the kids has passed away. 

How awful. Terrible. Tragic.

Scroll down, at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Sixth person, an 8-year-old boy, dies from parade injuries":

Jackson Sparks, an 8-year-old boy who was marching in the Waukesha Christmas Parade with his baseball team, has died from his injuries.

 

Kenosha, Portland, and the Lies

From Nancy Rommelman, at NYT, "Kenosha, Portland, and the Lies We Must Leave Behind":

.@NYTOpinion asked: Can you show us the 2020 riots in a clear light? With pleasure. And I thank them for asking https://t.co/qkQ93X0wNH

— Nancy Rommelmann (@NancyRomm) November 23, 2021

On Aug. 25, 2020, violence was exploding on the streets of Kenosha, Wis., two days after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Anyone who had been paying attention since the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis on May 25 most likely had one of two reactions: “Why is this happening? It’s unjustifiable” or “Of course this is happening, it’s completely justifiable.”

The violence in Kenosha was part of a familiar pattern. In cities across America, amid the upswelling of peaceful protest against racism and police brutality there were repeated episodes of rioting, looting and vandalism. This pattern was polarizing: Each act of violence, each injured participant or bystander, further entrenched the conviction that something was very, very wrong with the other side.

I was at the time reporting from the streets of Portland, Ore., covering the nightly rampages over the course of five months: the setting of fires at police stations and offices, the smashing of storefronts, the battling with forces the Trump administration had sent to protect the federal courthouse. It was an ecstatic experience for some of those young rioters, to be free after months of Covid sequestration, to be taking it to Mr. Trump’s goons and the police, to be, by their lights, able both to save the world and to experience a nightly spurt of relief.

But every morning the streets looked worse, the ideals for which the non-peaceful protesters believed they were fighting not any closer, in fact not in evidence at all. It was often broken glass and ashes, and the riots would happen for 100 nights running and on into 2021. More than once, I heard people refer to what was going on as Groundhog Night, and I wondered, more than once, if anything would shake them from their mission, such as it was. I also wondered when the media was going to do what I felt was our job to do: Report what we saw as clearly and calmly as we could, in order to give the public the information they needed to be informed, form their own opinions and make rational choices.

Along with many Americans, I watched coverage of the Kenosha riots on television. I experienced the cognitive dissonance others did, seeing the live CNN shot of a reporter standing before a conflagration while the chyron read, “Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting.” This mismatch mirrored my experience with how much of the news from Portland was being reported, which often sought to present the protesters as only on the defensive, rarely the instigators, as if pointing out any bad actors ran the risk of tarring the entire protest movement.

It was bold that CNN believed its viewers capable of covering one eye, so to speak, so that the picture made sense. But it was also unsurprising, given that the station was constructing that picture, choosing the images that helped confirm viewers’ convictions (just as Fox News did, with Sean Hannity telling viewers that Portland had “been ripped apart by a group of malicious so-called anarchists” and calling the city a “war zone”; Laura Ingraham peddling the theory that 2020s California wildfires had been set “intentionally” by people “including antifa” and using the riots as an election year cudgel, warning that under President Biden the “whole country” would “look like Portland”).

I found these tactical framings reprehensible. How could anyone in good conscience use the looting and burning of people’s livelihoods as fuel for their ideological fires? It made me wonder if those who framed the destruction to fit their own means understood they were supporting violence against the working class and, often, people of color; that by their explicit or tacit encouragement, they were as good as standing on the sidelines cheering as people’s lives were burned to the ground. And if it was OK to destroy property today, what would they be able to see their way past tomorrow?

I would almost immediately have a chance to find out. On Aug. 29, Aaron Danielson, a Trump supporter and member of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, was shot dead after participating in a pro-Trump caravan on the streets of Portland. The man suspected of killing him, Michael Reinoehl, was an antifa supporter who claimed to have been acting in defense of himself and others. The story, predictably, became a Rorschach test, some on the left seeing it as evidence that, as a woman who’d never met Mr. Danielson shouted through a bullhorn: “Our community can hold its own without the police. We can take out the trash on our own.” She added that she was “not sad” that a “fascist died tonight,” deriding Mr. Danielson with an expletive. Kate Brown, the governor of Oregon, tried to tighten security by fortifying the local police with nearby sheriff’s deputies and Oregon State Police troopers. But the sheriffs of Clackamas and Washington Counties rejected the governor’s plan, taking pains to criticize Portland’s approach to crime as they did so.

After Mr. Reinoehl was killed by officers from a federally led fugitive task force on Sept. 3, there were attempts on the left to lionize him as a casualty of the fight for racial justice. The standoff, even with lives at risk, reified for me how spring-loaded people were for the other side to be at fault, how ready to refashion events into what could be seen as useful weaponry.

Kyle Rittenhouse says he went into the streets of Kenosha with the mission to protect property and people. His father and other relatives lived in Kenosha, he had worked as a lifeguard there, and had a military-style semiautomatic rifle stashed at the home of a friend’s stepfather. The night of Aug. 25, Mr. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, carrying a first aid kit and the rifle, waded into the mayhem with hazy ideas of helping, maybe of heroics. He ended up killing two men and badly injuring another. That it went terribly wrong is inarguable.

Also inarguable is that many see Mr. Rittenhouse as symbolic of the very worst of the other side. There is no hope of consensus regarding what happened in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. There are those who believe that Mr. Rittenhouse’s actions were sensible or even laudable — the city had descended into lawlessness; the teenager, however benightedly, believed that he could offer some semblance of protection...

 

Bari Weiss on the Rittenhouse Not Guilty Verdict

The best. Ms. Weiss is always the best.

If you are shocked by the Rittenhouse verdict reconsider what media you consume: https://t.co/zIMveD3IXN

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) November 19, 2021

Kyle Rittenhouse Found Not Guilty on All Charges in Kenosha Self-Defense Trial (VIDEO)

Justice was served. 

A brave young man, yet just 18 years old (and 17 at the time of the shootings) who showed courage under fire, in Kenosha and trial by a the bloodthirsty and vicious leftist mass-media.

At the Other McCain, "Kenosha: Verdict Today? Or Never?"

From Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "BREAKING: KYLE RITTENHOUSE NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS."

And at WSJ, "Kyle Rittenhouse Found Not Guilty of All Charges in Killing of Two."

A Wisconsin jury found Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged in the killing of two people during unrest in Kenosha, Wis., last year, not guilty on all charges.

Mr. Rittenhouse, now 18 years old, faced charges of intentional, reckless and attempted homicide, and reckless endangerment. The case revolved around his actions the night of Aug. 25, 2020, as he patrolled the city with a small medical kit and an AR-15-style rifle amid unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

His attorneys argued he acted in self-defense and entered a not guilty plea. He has been free on $2 million in bail, mostly raised by supporters online.

The jury deliberated for three days and three hours, after a trial that took a little over two weeks.

Mr. Rittenhouse cried, breathing quickly and shaking while he clutched at his chest as the verdict was read. The judge thanked the jury and said they had been wonderful to work with. The judge said the charges were dismissed with prejudice and that he had been released from his bond.

The most dramatic moments of the trial came as Mr. Rittenhouse testified in his own defense, at one point breaking down on the stand. He later said that he feared for his life as Joseph Rosenbaum, the first person he shot and killed, ran toward him and had his hand on the barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s rifle as Mr. Rittenhouse began firing.

“If I would have let Mr. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it and probably killed more people,” Mr. Rittenhouse testified during cross examination by prosecutors.

Lawyers who weren’t involved in the case said the testimony probably helped his case.

The prosecution portrayed Mr. Rittenhouse as an outsider who lied about his status as an EMT and was ill-prepared to render aid or handle a firearm in the chaotic situation. But even some of its own witnesses bolstered defense arguments that he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Mr. Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27.

Richie McGinniss, a videographer for the online publication the Daily Caller who was called by the prosecution, testified that Mr. Rosenbaum was chasing Mr. Rittenhouse through a parking lot and appeared to lunge for Mr. Rittenhouse’s gun in the moments leading up to the shooting.

Mr. Grosskreutz said in his testimony that he was pointing a handgun toward Mr. Rittenhouse when the then-17-year-old fired at him, causing severe damage to Mr. Grosskreutz’s arm.

The prosecution has always faced an uphill battle in the case. Under Wisconsin law, the defense must only cite some evidence for self-defense, putting the burden of proof on prosecutors to negate that claim beyond a reasonable doubt...

Ann Althouse Visits Madison Anti-Shutdown Rally

See, "We drove up to the Wisconsin Capitol to see the anti-shutdown rally...... and from the completely closed car, I was able to get some photographs."

PHOTO CREDIT: Ann Althouse on Flickr.

Freddie deBoer Slams the Condescending, Certain, and Incoherent Left

He's a great writer.

He's far left, but usually honest about his ideological tendencies. At least as far as I can remember. The main strike against him is he used to blog with E.D. Kain at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, a stupid blog that's still in operation, it turns out.

In any case, here's Freddie, "condescending, certain, and incoherent":

I’ve been asking my friends on the academic left what rights conservative students have, in an era of a university culture obsessed with trauma. Two things are broadly true: one, they think that it’s ridiculous to suggest that there’s any reason to worry about what conservative students can and can’t say – there’s no questions here, no conflicts, nothing even to discuss. Two, despite the mutuality of this dismissal, no two of them have the same idea about what answers are stunningly obvious, only that they are. I am told that of course students can support Trump and say so, but that “Make America Great Again” is hate speech, despite simply being the slogan of the campaign that they just said students have the right to support. They say that it’s not permissible for students to identify with the alt-right, which is a hate group, but it’s fine for them to be plain-vanilla conservatives, despite the fact that the latter group has indisputably done vastly more to harm marginalized people than the former.

What are the rules? I don’t know, and I’m ensconced firmly in these debates. I harp on civil liberties and free speech a lot because, yes, I think they’re worth defending and that the traditional association between leftist politics and support for them was substantively correct on political theory grounds. But also because they’re a perfect example of the holes in current left theory. When does someone’s trauma outweigh the right of another to speak? Who can say what, in which contexts, when? I have no idea what people think the answers are. I just know that they think the question is so obvious as to not be worth asking. It’s an inverse argument from incredulity, not “I can’t believe you could possibly think that” but “I can’t believe you don’t already.”

As they say, RTWT.

ICYMI: Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment

I posted the interview with Professor Cramer this morning, here.

And ICYMI, check out her book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment

Following-up from Sunday, "Democrats Search for a Path Back Into Rural America's Good Graces."

I'm glad I've found Katherine Kramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her timely new book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

And listen to her at this interview, posted November 6th, but taped in August:

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke Reflects Intricacies of Race

Sheriff Clarke made the front-page of the Los Angles Times.

Unfortunately, the article attempts to marginalize him as an oddity and throwback, while lionizing Milwaukee's police chief, Edward Flynn, as compassionate and progressive. Who's right about the cities problems? Sheriff Clarke, of course. Flynn's not even originally from Milwaukee, whereas Clarke's lived there all his life, rose up through the police department from the age of 21, and was later appointed county sheriff, and he's been reelected four times. The dude's a righteous freakin' patriot.

In Milwaukee, a conservative black sheriff clashes with a liberal white police chief https://t.co/OoqdlF7El5 pic.twitter.com/o3ztLrEgGl

— Jaweed Kaleem (@jaweedkaleem) August 20, 2016

Timely as Ever: Heather Mac Donald's The War on Cops

Well, after Milwaukee, time to re-up Heather Mac Donald's The War on Cops.

At Amazon, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe.

You're gonna love this book.

I guarantee it!

Paul Ryan Defends His Wisconsin House Seat Against Paul Nehlen Today

Wisconsin votes today in a weird mid-August primary.

At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Ann Coulter rallies Paul Nehlen supporters."

Also, "Polls suggest Paul Ryan insulated from Donald Trump."

Related, "Voter ID law is in place for primary":

Madison — Two judges have trimmed back the state’s voter ID law in recent weeks, but those going to the polls Tuesday will still need to show identification to cast ballots.

That’s because the judges said their rulings wouldn’t take effect until after the primary. So, voters will have to show ID at the polls Tuesday but not necessarily in the Nov. 8 presidential election, when turnout will be much higher.

Here’s what you need to know about Tuesday’s primary...

We need voter ID in California, heh.

But keep reading.

Ted Cruz's Wisconsin Win Complicates Donald Trump's Path to GOP Nomination (VIDEO)

Well, I expect we're closer to an open convention now than we've ever been.

At the video below, Andrea Tantaros introduces the "Outnumbered" panel discussion of last night Wisconsin results.

And see LAT, "Cruz wins Wisconsin, complicating Trump's path to the nomination":

Depending on the final outcome, Trump will need to capture close to 60% of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination without a convention fight, said David Wasserman, who is tracking the GOP race for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Right now,” Wasserman said, “it looks like a 50-50 chance he gets there.”

Heading into the Wisconsin primary Trump suffered one of the rockiest stretches of his campaign, and that raised the hopes of opponents — including many rallying behind Cruz grudgingly as part of a stop-Trump effort — that the New York businessman's controversies may have finally caught up with him.

Exit polls found a strong aversion to the GOP front-runner, who heads to much friendlier territory Wednesday, starting with a rally on New York's Long Island.

Nearly 4 in 10 of the Republican voters interviewed Tuesday said they would be scared of what Trump would do if elected president, much higher than the levels of concern expressed about Cruz or Kasich.

About 6 in 10 said they were excited or optimistic about a Cruz presidency, and about half said that about Kasich, compared with just over 4 in 10 for Trump.

Additionally, the level of discontent with Washington and the percentage of voters favoring a political outsider for president, while considerable, was much lower than in states where Trump ran strongly.

Wisconsin at first seemed tailored to Trump's advantage. The state has a large population of working-class white voters and allows independents to cast ballots in the GOP primary; both groups have undergirded Trump's political success across the country.

Wisconsin is also more secular and less ideological than states where Cruz, running as a staunch social conservative, has performed well.

But almost immediately Trump ran into difficulties, owing to a series of tactical miscues.

He criticized the state's two most popular Republicans, Gov. Scott Walker, a onetime presidential rival, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, and turned off many by insulting the looks of Cruz's wife, Heidi, in a posting on social media.

“That stung him badly,” said Rep. Reid Ribble, who represents Appleton and Green Bay in Congress and endorsed Cruz days ahead of the primary. “There's a real strong sense of family. The idea that somebody would attack anybody's wife, based on just physical appearance, was just so insulting to the typical father, to the typical husband and to the typical woman.”

Trump also faced a relentless battering from Wisconsin's conservative talk radio hosts, a key ally in Walker's pitched battles against organized labor and the political left.

Walker endorsed Cruz and, in effect, turned the primary into a referendum on his performance, telling Republicans to support the senator over Trump “if you liked what we've done” in Wisconsin.

Trump's difficulties were compounded by a series of controversies, including the arrest of his campaign manager on allegations of manhandling a reporter in Florida, and a statement — which Trump quickly revised — that the candidate would support punishing women who have an abortion if the procedure were banned.

Some voters, like Pam Gruettner, said they had backed Trump at first, only to be turned off by his behavior and outlandish statements, especially in the raucous GOP debates.

“I wanted someone to kick butt and get stuff done in the White House,” said Gruettner, a retired saleswoman, pausing after she cast her ballot for Cruz in Waukesha, a conservative stronghold. “I think his ego got the best of him.”

For some, though, Trump's penchant for unpredictability and blithe disregard for most social and political niceties were precisely the reason to support him.

“Trump is the right person to put in here, because we need somebody who everyone thinks is nuts,” said Tom Podziemski, 67, who cast his ballot in Greenfield, a Milwaukee suburb. “Cruz is just saying what the establishment wants him to say. He's a puppet.”

Cruz ran harder in Wisconsin than any state since Iowa, where he won the first 2016 contest. He faced a two-front battle, against Trump as well as Kasich, who tried to pick off a handful of delegates in friendly pockets of the state, including the university town of Madison.

For Trump, the good news is the balloting now moves to less hostile political terrain, starting in two weeks with a primary in his home state of New York, where he is an overwhelming favorite to capture a substantial chunk of its 95 delegates.

A string of contests follows on April 26 in Pennsylvania and several Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, where GOP voters tend to be less religious and conservative, which could also play to Trump's advantage...

And see Politico, "Wisconsin meltdown puts Trump on track for convention fight."

Donald Trump Faces Harsh Test in Wisconsin

This is a great piece.

Wisconsin's primary's tonight. I have no clue what's going to happen, as some polls have had Trump leading Ted Cruz by as much as ten points. But we'll see. Trump couldn't fill a hall in Milwaukee last night, so the Badger State's not like the groundswell he's been receiving in states like Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina.

At WSJ, "Donald Trump Faces Great Test Against Wisconsin’s Conservative Political Network":

An hour before the Trump event starts, Milwaukee Theater is barely half full with no lines outside pic.twitter.com/lsSm6qW6rH

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) April 4, 2016

GREEN BAY, Wis.—Wisconsin Republicans could be Donald Trump’s worst nightmare: a sophisticated electorate guided by a conservative political network that has honed its tactics during 13 state Senate and two statewide recall elections held since Republican Scott Walker became the governor five years ago.

Mr. Trump has built a formidable delegate lead in the Republican presidential primary by appealing to people who are infrequent voters. But they are a rarity here—especially in the vote-rich counties that ring Milwaukee and form the core of the state GOP base.

During the 2012 general election, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties each saw turnout of 79% or more. Only one county in the state saw turnout less than 55%, according to the state’s Government Accountability Board.

“Wisconsin has been through a lot of challenging elections, so people are up on the issues,” said Alberta Darling, a Republican state senator from the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills who survived a 2011 recall after backing Mr. Walker’s repeal of collective bargaining rights for most of the state’s public employees. “We are seasoned voters and that’s made a big difference this year.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz barnstormed the state on Sunday, beginning with a Green Bay rally where he was introduced by Mr. Walker, who didn’t say Mr. Trump’s name but said the state’s Republican voters won’t be easily swayed.

“No matter what anybody says coming into the state, we are well-informed,” Mr. Walker said.

At stake in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary are 42 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Mr. Trump retains a commanding delegate lead, with 736, compared with 463 for his closest rival, Mr. Cruz. A Republican needs to win 1,237 delegates to become the party’s nominee. Wisconsin polls show Mr. Cruz holding sizable leads over Mr. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Mr. Trump on Sunday called for Mr. Kasich, who is a distant third in the delegate hunt with 142, to end his campaign. “He’s not taking Cruz’s votes; he’s taking my votes,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Milwaukee.

Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf said no Republican candidate will win the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the nomination before the Republican National Convention in July. “We look forward to Trump dropping out before the convention,” Mr. Schrimpf said.

In addition to a GOP electorate educated on conservative issues, Mr. Cruz has another hidden advantage: Republican voters here show up. Of 10 presidential swing states tracked in a 2012 Bipartisan Policy Center report, only Wisconsin had more than 70% voter turnout in each of the last three presidential elections.

And Milwaukee’s conservative talk radio hosts have taken a victory lap in the national media after treating the Republican front-runner to a series of rough interviews, touting themselves as the bulwark of the anti-Trump forces.

But if Wisconsin hands Mr. Trump a defeat Tuesday, it will be because of voters such as Ed Perkins, a 75-year-old retiree in Grand Chute.

Always interested in politics, Mr. Perkins said he first became involved in conservative causes to defend Mr. Walker and Republican state senators during the recall elections of 2011 and 2012. He now leads a local tea-party group and on Friday hosted a Cruz campaign event featuring Mr. Cruz’s father, Rafael, at a restaurant in Appleton.

“People like myself have become more knowledgeable about what’s going on,” said Mr. Perkins. “The result of that, of all the candidates, we feel Ted Cruz is the constitutional candidate in front of us.”

Still more.

And see Betsy Woodruff, at the Daily Beast, "Sad! Donald Trump Bombs in Milwaukee."

Cars Fall Through the Ice at Lake Geneva's Winterfest (VIDEO)

At Fox News 6 Milwaukee, via Memeorandum, "“Unbelievable:” 15 vehicles fall through ice at Lake Geneva's Winterfest."

And at WISN News 12 Milwaukee:



More on YouTube, "Michele Fiore Reports From Lake Geneva Winterfest."

Drunk 21-Year-Old Woman Dies of Exposure After Leaving Party in Milwaukee with Temperatures at -6°F (VIDEO)

Folks were making jokes about this woman on Twitter, but I can't laugh. It's just not funny.

She had on just shorts and a tank top. She didn't even make it four blocks before falling into the snow, freezing to death. It was -27°F with the wind chill factor.

She was just 21 and apparently had drinking problems.

Watch, at WISN News 12, "Woman, 21, found frozen outside home identified: Elizabeth Luebke, of Oshkosh, was in subzero temperatures for hours."

Holiday Bowl: USC vs. Wisconsin

It's not on until 7:30 pm (Pacific), so a late game if you're on the East Coast.

In any case, at the Los Angeles Times, "For resilient USC seniors, a period of unprecedented tumult will end in Holiday Bowl":

They came to USC knowing that part of their careers would be played under NCAA sanctions.

No bowl games for a few years? They could deal with that.

A thinned roster because of scholarship limits? That might lead to more immediate playing time.

Four coaching changes and multiple off-the-field dramas later, USC's seniors are preparing for Wednesday's Holiday Bowl against Wisconsin, a final game in a span of unprecedented tumult.

Members of the 2011 and 2012 recruiting classes will leave the program with advanced degrees in resiliency.

"We went through hell and back," fullback Soma Vainuku said. "That's how you can explain us seniors."

These are players who signed on to play for Lane Kiffin, who had succeeded Pete Carroll and in his first season guided the Trojans to an 8-5 record in 2010.

They saw Kiffin get fired, Ed Orgeron promoted to interim coach, Orgeron bolt when Steve Sarkisian was hired, Clay Helton promoted to interim coach for a bowl game, Sarkisian fired, Helton promoted again to interim coach and, finally, Helton hired as permanent coach.

They also endured three changes at defensive coordinator, numerous arrivals and departures of position coaches and controversies surrounding coaches, teammates and Athletic Director Pat Haden.

Freshman tailback Ronald Jones II marveled at the seniors' ability to play through the upheaval.

"I can't imagine," he said. "I probably couldn't have stayed. It would be hard seeing a new face every offseason and then trying to buy into his motto and system. That would have been tough."

Not everybody did stay. Six players from those classes, Marqise Lee, Leonard Williams and Nelson Agholor among them, left early for the NFL, and a handful transferred or quit or were removed from the team. But a dozen seniors from those classes will complete their eligibility this week...

More.

And don't miss Lindsey Thiry at the video above.

Madeleine Behr, USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign, Signed Recall Petition in 2011

Democrat Party activists with bylines.

From Kimberlee Kaye, at Legal Insurrection, "USA Today Reporter Covering Scott Walker Campaign Signed Recall Petition."

National Review on Wisconsin Democrat Party's 'John Doe' Investigations

I remember reading about the Democrat Party's Nazi-style "John Doe" raids a couple of years ago, at the Wall Street Journal, "Wisconsin Political Speech Raid."

As terrifying as initial reports were, you get a genuine appreciation of Democrat Gestapo tactics with National Review's report, "Wisconsin's Shame: ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Patterico writes:

The investigations were conducted at the behest of a prosecutor whose offices “were festooned with the ‘blue fist’ poster of the labor-union movement.” According to one prosecutor who spoke to journalist Stuart Taylor, the wife of the lead prosecutor, John Chisholm, was “a teachers’-union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10’s union reforms” — and Chisholm “felt it was his personal duty” to stop the reforms. Pursuant to the politically motivated subpoenas lacking in probable cause, prosecutors subpoenaed electronic data such as emails and conducted these abusive raids.

It’s the type of activity you would expect to see from the Stasi in East Germany. Conservative activists in Wisconsin literally do not feel safe. They think that police could burst into their homes at any moment to punish them for their First Amendment activity.

In a country that actually valued freedom, this story would spark front-page headlines all over the country. It would be all anyone would be talking about for weeks, and nobody would rest until we knew it could never, ever happen again.

We are no longer such a country.

Gestapo. Stasi. Well, you get the point.

More at Instapundit.