Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a probability of rain in the afternoon. Sunrise is 5:21 AM and sunset 8:22 PM, for 15h 00m 38s of daytime. The moon is new with .7% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred ninety-ninth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1805, Corsican-born French dictator Napoleon has himself declared king of Italy. On this day in 1864, the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry participates in a skirmish at Lanes Prairie, Missouri.
Recommended for reading in full —
The New York Times states the obvious, in an editorial entitled, President Trump Fails NATO:
What possesses him to treat America’s allies so badly? The NATO nations are mostly democracies with vibrant free markets that have helped America keep enemies at bay, including in Afghanistan. The question is made all the more pressing in view of Mr. Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of countless autocrats, among them Vladimir Putin of Russia and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, where he just paid a deferential visit and assured Sunni Arab leaders that “we are not here to lecture” despite their abominable records on human rights.
This perplexing dichotomy has been vividly captured in video and photographs — Mr. Trump laughing comfortably with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to Washington during a recent Oval Office meeting, while refusing to shake the hand of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany when she came to town. There was more of the same in Brussels, with Mr. Trump shoving aside the prime minister of Montenegro, which recently defied Russia to join NATO, on his way to a front row spot for a photograph.
Anna Nemtsova and Spencer Ackerman report that Ukrainians Say FBI Questioning Them About Manafort—At Last:
KIEV—The Ukrainian parliamentarian Mustafa Nayyem says the FBI has come to him at last, asking about Paul Manafort, who had a long record as a political operative serving pro-Russian figures here before he became the campaign manager for Donald Trump last year.
Nayyem and other Ukrainian officials say they are not only willing to cooperate with the FBI, they have been trying to do that for years, but only recently did American law enforcement show any interest….
“We are not dealing here with some ordinary man. This case requires a deep and global international investigation, it concerns our core values,” said Nayyem.
When we talked to Nayyem, he had just returned from his trip to Washington, where he says he felt a sense of déja vu walking from floor to floor of the State Department. He was surprised to see that most decisions were made in the White House now. “It reminded me of the vertical rule of the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine,” he said, and that felt ominous.
“I believe America will see many more consequences of Paul Manafort’s contamination: what he has first exercised in Russia and Ukraine and now planted in the USA. Americans should be careful— vertical power is quickly built, but it is hard to destroy.”
AJ Vicens writes that New Report Details What Dirty Tricks Russian Cyber Hackers Use to Spread Lies and Mayhem:
Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based human rights research group that focuses on cyber security and surveillance, issued a report Thursday offering a detailed look at what they call an “extensive Russia-linked phishing and disinformation campaign” that targeted journalists and others, many of whom could be seen as undermining Russian President Vladimir Putin, those close to him, or Russian geopolitical interests.
Entitled “Tainted Leaks,” the report traces the evolution of how stolen emails are altered and eventually used to disrupt political campaigns or dishonestly shape public opinion. In this case, the emails and other documents were stolen from the targets, modified in subtle but meaningful ways, published by pro-Russian hacktivists, and amplified by pro-Russian media in an attempt to discredit negative reporting about Putin and his inner circle. It showed how critical journalism was made to appear more subversive than it was by having locally-based stories appear to be the work of a CIA operation looking to foment revolution. Aimed at Russia’s domestic population, the disinformation campaign appears designed to distract from any anger or distrust that reporting about Putin’s and his associates’ corruption may have created.
Malachy Browne, Troy Griggs, Chris Cirillo, and Natalie Reneau investigate Did the Turkish President’s Security Detail Attack Protesters in Washington? What the Video Shows:
The New York Times reviewed videos and photos to track the actions of 24 men, including armed members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail, who attacked protesters in Washington last week. Many of the protesters were American citizens.
The men kicked people lying on the ground and put a woman in a chokehold just a mile from the White House. They outnumbered the protesters nearly two to one.
The State Department has condemned the episode, and some American lawmakers have called for the men to be prosecuted. But none have been charged with a crime. Here’s what video of the main actors shows about the identities of the men and the roles they played in the clash.
Alexandra Horowitz explains dogs’ different barks: