FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread for 3.17.17

Good morning.

St. Patrick’s Day in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of forty-three. Sunrise is 7:01 AM and sunset 5:04 PM, for 12h 03m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred twenty-ninth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission is scheduled to meet today at 5 PM.

On this day in 1776, the Siege of Boston ends, with 120 British ships evacuating Boston Harbor. On this day in 1941, Milwaukee’s airport is named for air-power pioneer General William Mitchell.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Mary Spicuzza reports that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett mocks Sheriff David Clarke for ‘fighting crime’ on cable shows: “I think he’s got a great gig going right now. He’s fightin’ crime one conservative cable TV show at a time,” Barrett said Wednesday during an interview with Wisconsin Eye and the Journal Sentinel. “He’s made a great name for himself, I think, as the darling of the conservative cable network. I think he can make a ton of money doing that.” When asked if Clarke was doing TV appearances at the expense of doing his job as sheriff, Barrett said, “I think if you were to ask people who know what’s going on here, they would say that he rode his horse out of town a long time ago.”

Michael Gerson observes that Trump has picked a deeply disturbing hero: “But Jackson’s vices were not merely personal. Many of the Founders had been internally conflicted slaveholders. Jackson was not one for psychic struggle. Meacham recounts that Jackson once authored an “Advertisement for Runaway Slave” that offered $50 for the return of the slave “and ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him.” Such attitudes were not disqualifying in Jackson’s America. And much of Jackson’s reputation depended on being a frontier Indian fighter. This was a president who once earned the Indian nickname “Sharp Knife.” In a battle against the Red Stick Creeks, Jackson set about to “exterminate them” (his words). Hundreds of fighters and civilians were killed trying to flee across the Tallapoosa River. By one account, “the river ran red with blood.” A sharp knife indeed….Why discuss this ancient history (which is not really so ancient to the Cherokee)? Because Trump, in visiting Jackson’s Hermitage, has invited us. Jackson was wrong — badly, culpably wrong — on the largest issue of his time: the dignity and value of people of color. “The tragedy of Jackson’s life,” admits Meacham, “is that a man dedicated to freedom failed to see liberty as a universal, not a particular, gift.” There is no refuge in the argument that Jackson merely reflected the values of his time. Jackson’s opponent in two elections, John Quincy Adams, viewed slavery as “the great and foul stain upon the North American Union.” Henry Clay called Indian expulsion “a foul and lasting stain upon the good faith, humanity and character of the nation.” And Jackson’s reputation will always bear those indelible marks.”

David Sanger reports that Tillerson Says No Negotiations With North Korea on Nuclear Program: “SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out on Friday opening any negotiation with North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time that the Trump administration might be forced to take pre-emptive action “if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an unacceptable level. Mr. Tillerson’s comments in Seoul, a day before he travels to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, explicitly rejected any return to the bargaining table in an effort to buy time by halting North Korea’s accelerating testing program, which the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said on New Year’s Day was in the “final stages” of preparation for the first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the United States. The secretary of state’s comments were the Trump administration’s first public hint at the options being considered, and made clear that none involved a negotiated settlement or waiting for the North Korean government to collapse.”

Karoline Kan asks Tai Chi Encourages Calm. So Why Are Its Chinese Fans Stressing Out?: “Last year, Indian yoga made Unesco’s list. In 2011, South Korea’s taekkyeon became the first martial art so honored. So why can’t Chinese tai chi win similar international recognition? That is the question on Yan Shuangjun’s mind as the annual deadline approaches for nominations to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, established by the United Nations agency to celebrate and protect the world’s cultural diversity. For the past decade, Mr. Yan has lobbied for the inclusion of tai chi, a centuries-old martial art that combines flowing movements with deep breathing and meditation. “Through tai chi, one can understand Chinese culture, from medicine to literature, from philosophy to art,” said Mr. Yan, who heads the Tai Chi Unesco Heritage Application Group in Wen County, Henan Province, widely thought to be the martial art’s birthplace. As much as tai chi advocates and fans insist that it embodies unique aspects of Chinese culture, they fear that if China does not secure it a Unesco listing, other countries might move ahead with their own variants. It would not be the first time, they say.”

What lies beneath?  A harvest:

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