Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of twenty.  Sunrise is 7:15 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 05m 05s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s University Technology Park Board meets at 8 AM. 

On this day in 1901, Morris Pratt incorporates his institute for spiritualism (Pratt had built the institute in Whitewater thirteen years earlier, in 1888).

Recommended for reading in full:

David Corn writes William Barr’s War on Reality, Truth, and the Law:

This is how it works. The big lie. The endless spin. The outright denial of facts. Again and again and again. The complete destruction and devaluation of truth for political gain. Overwhelm reality with fiction, concoctions, and false narratives. Embrace deceit and duplicity.

For rogues, scoundrels, tyrants, princes and princesses of corruption—and their henchmen—the truth is a threat. It must be crushed. It must be vanquished. Abuse of power cannot exist alongside accountability. Malefactors cannot survive within an atmosphere of truth. It is a suffocating poison for them. So they must deceive, and they must dissemble. That is what the United States’ top law enforcement officer demonstrated this week.

Following the release of the Justice Department inspector general’s report on the origins and management of the Trump-Russia investigation, Attorney General William Barr went into full Oceania  war-is-peace mode to erase truth in order to protect and soothe his dear leader, Donald Trump. Moments after the report appeared—it concludes the FBI had been right to open an investigation of interactions between Trump associates and Russia in 2016, as Moscow was attacking the US election to help Trump win the White House—Barr challenged the findings. He declared that he knew better than the IG and that the FBI had launched the probe “on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.” Barr noted that his own hand-picked federal prosecutor, John Durham, would be conducting a separate review and have the final word. And the next day, Barr continued his brazen campaign of disinformation. In an interview with NBC News, he called the FBI investigation “completely baseless.” Barr depicted the probe as a “danger” to civil liberties and the American political system. He was twisting up into down.

Jared Bernstein writes Trump’s China Trade War Is Failing. Democrats Should Campaign Against It:

Is Your Plastic Actually Being Recycled?:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of twenty-one.  Sunrise is 7:15 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 05m 49s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Schools’ Policy Review Committee meets at 8 AM, Whitewater’s Finance Committee at 5:30 PM, and the Whitewater Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1884, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is first published.

Recommended for reading in full:

Katelyn Ferral, Molly Beck, and Patrick Marley report Wisconsin National Guard chief resigns after report shows sexual assault investigations violated state and federal laws:

The chief of Wisconsin’s National Guard resigned Monday following the release of an explosive report that showed the Guard for years botched investigations of sexual assault and harassment, violating state and federal law.

Gov. Tony Evers called for Adjutant General Donald Dunbar’s resignation after learning the Wisconsin National Guard intentionally created its own internal system of investigating sexual assault complaints to shield the Guard from state law enforcement and federal regulators.

“These internal investigations were deficient in a number of ways that adversely impacted commands’ efforts to properly support victims of sexual assault and hold offenders accountable,” said an 88-page report by the federal National Guard Bureau that Evers released Monday.

That system operated with no formal oversight, staffed with state investigators who, in many cases, were not properly trained and portrayed themselves as federal officials to victims.

“In some cases, these investigators identified themselves as ‘National Guard Bureau Investigators’ — even though they conducted their investigations exclusively under the auspices of the Wisconsin National Guard,” according to the report.

“The (reviewers) found numerous, significant deficiencies that compromised the accuracy and legality of the Wisconsin National Guard sexual assault investigations,” the report says.

The Guard had just 15% of the number of certified staff federal policies require to handle such allegations. In some cases, commanders had no idea who these staff were within their own units, Evers’ aides said.

Ann E. Marimow and Jonathan O’Connell report Trump’s private business interests are back at appeals courts in emoluments cases:

Attorneys challenging President Trump’s private business dealings say ongoing revelations about his properties bolster claims that he is illegally profiting through transactions with state and foreign governments.

As challengers head back to court this week, their new court filings point to revelations that the Ukrainian president bragged in a July phone call with Trump about having stayed at Trump’s New York hotel before taking office in his homeland.

They also cite the administration’s decision to host next year’s G-7 summit at Trump’s Doral golf course — a choice abandoned after pointed criticism — as evidence of the president’s conflicts and disregard for boundaries laid out by the Constitution’s emoluments clauses.

Other recent reports could aid plaintiffs as well, including that the Secret Service spent more than $250,000 at Trump properties early in his administration and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) booked a room with state funds at the Trump D.C. hotel, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

 Tech That Died This Decade:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see scattered morning showers a high of forty-five.  Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 06m 37s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department also meets this evening at 6 PM (later canceled).

On this day in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas debuts on CBS.

Recommended for reading in full:

David E. Sanger writes For Trump, Instinct After Florida Killings Is Simple: Protect Saudis:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When a Saudi Air Force officer opened fire on his classmates at a naval base in Pensacola, Fla., on Friday, he killed three, wounded eight and exposed anew the strange dynamic between President Trump and the Saudi leadership: The president’s first instinct was to tamp down any suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account.

Hours later, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had received a condolence call from King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who clearly sought to ensure that the episode did not further fracture their relationship. On Saturday, leaving the White House for a trip here for a Republican fund-raiser and a speech on Israeli-American relations, Mr. Trump told reporters that “they are devastated in Saudi Arabia,” noting that “the king will be involved in taking care of families and loved ones.” He never used the word “terrorism.”

What was missing was any assurance that the Saudis would aid in the investigation, help identify the suspect’s motives, or answer the many questions about the vetting process for a coveted slot at one of the country’s premier schools for training allied officers. Or, more broadly, why the United States continues to train members of the Saudi military even as that same military faces credible accusations of repeated human rights abuses in Yemen, including the dropping of munitions that maximize civilian casualties.

AJ Vicens writes Trump Headlines a Fundraiser Alongside Accused War Criminals:

President Donald Trump’s took part in a Saturday night rally in South Florida, bringing two accused war criminals on to the stage as honored guests.

According to the Miami Herald, during his speech at Florida Republicans’ annual Statesman’s Dinner, Trump brought Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Matt Golsteyn in front of the crowd. Trump controversially pardoned the two—along with former Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher—last month against the recommendations of senior military leaders. Lorance was serving a 19-year prison sentence for murder after ordering soldiers to open fire on three unarmed Afghan men in 2012, killing two. Golsteyn had been charged with premeditated murder after admitting to shooting a detained, unarmed Afghan man in 2010. Golsteyn killed the prisoner off-base and buried his body, only to dig it up later, bring it back to the base, and burn it in a pit used to dispose of trash, according to theWashington Post.

How America’s Love Of Cats And Dogs Became A $72 Billion Business:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers a high of forty-three.  Sunrise is 7:13 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 07m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, the United States declares war on the Japanese Empire.

Recommended for reading in full:

  Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian opponent of Trump, writes Christian Doomsayers Have Lost It:

One of the things I have been most struck by in my conversations with Christian conservatives is how moral concern has given way to moral panic. It distorts their perceptions about the very real progress that has been made while causing feelings of deep insecurity and fear, despite “fear not” being one of the most frequently repeated commands in the Bible.

Many Christians have become invested in a dark narrative. As a friend of mine puts it: “They seem to have some kind of psychological craving for apocalyptic fear. I wonder if walking it back is even possible.”

Whether these Christians will be able to walk back or not, the effects have been injurious. This apocalyptic moral mind-set has led to an alliance with a shockingly unethical figure, who embodies a mobster’s mentality and an anti-Christian ethic. Mr. Trump, a skilled demagogue, has taken full advantage of this. There appears to be almost nothing he can say or do to break the bond that has developed, and virtually nothing that many of his Christian supporters will not excuse.

See also Wehner’s The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity (“evangelical Christians should acknowledge the profound damage that’s being done to their movement by its braided political relationship—its love affair, to bring us back to the words of Ralph Reed—with a president who is an ethical and moral wreck.”)

(Wehner’s two articles seem contradictory – on one hand doomsayers, on the other hand a deepening crisis – but are easily reconciled: he considers general trends as relatively positive, but his fellow evangelicals’ particular political support for Trump as destructive to evangelicalism. Both are possible. I’m not of a conservative evangelical denomination, but Wehner’s assessment seems sound.)

Michael Gerson writes Trump and his Fox supporters are no longer content just spewing propaganda:

The triumph of ad hominem arguments on the Trump right also has a deeper and darker meaning. Fox News is no longer content to spout pro-Trump propaganda. It must destroy Trump’s opponents, even if they are honorable people. Especially if they are honorable people. The goal is not to dispute their testimony — which, on the facts, seems indisputable — but to discredit them as witnesses and as human beings. The immediate response to the release of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony was for Ingraham to call his loyalty to the United States into question — despite a Purple Heart giving evidence of such loyalty. Attacks on those who dare oppose Trump are reflexive and brutal. To hell with past service. To hell with facts. All that matters is muddying, blunting or silencing an accusation against the dear leader.

In Berlin, Karaoke in Front of Thousands:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of forty.  Sunrise is 7:12 AM and sunset 4:20 PM, for 9h 08m 26s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1941, seventy-eight years ago, Imperial Japan attacks the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

Recommended for reading in full:

Katelyn Ferral reports The Wisconsin National Guard gave sexual assault accusers waiver forms to avoid police:

At least two soldiers who say they were sexually assaulted while serving in the Wisconsin National Guard say they either were asked by Guard officials to sign forms waiving their right to notify local law enforcement of the assaults or encouraged to file generic police reports only as a formality, indicating that the military was handling it.

Records obtained by the Cap Times in both cases show that the victims signed or were asked to sign the same form waiving their right to notify local law enforcement.

In one case, a soldier who filed a formal report of sexual assault with the Guard, aiming to trigger an investigation against her perpetrator, says she was told by the Guard’s Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), Maj. Robert Brania, that she needed to make the police report as a “formality” but advised her to make it generic.

“You don’t want the cops coming to his house and bothering his family. Just keep it vague and tell them the military is handling it,” she recalled that she was told. “Why is the state SARC telling me not to name his name?”

The soldier requested anonymity because she still works for the Guard.

She later filed a more detailed police report on the advice of her Special Victims Counsel, which is a type of attorney the military assigns to sexual assault victims.

….

The National Guard Bureau’s investigators later substantiated her sexual assault allegations. Wisconsin Guard officials later allowed her perpetrator to retire with benefits and rehired him as a private civilian contractor.

(Emphasis added.)

Previously: Wisconsin National Guard’s response to sexual-assault allegations ‘an absolute train wreck,’ federal investigator says and Email shows former DOJ leaders coordinated with Wisconsin National Guard to keep feds out of sexual assault investigations.

Paul Sonne, Greg Miller, and Josh Dawsey report As impeachment tide swirls around Trump, Giuliani drops anchor in Ukraine:

Even as the House of Representatives began drafting charges against President Trump this week, his private attorney, who many believe is partly responsible for leading Trump on the path to his likely impeachment, made an audacious trip to the country at the center of the scandal.

Rudolph W. Giuliani departed Kyiv after meeting with a range of Ukrainians who have been feeding him unproven allegations against former vice president Joe Biden and helping construct a counternarrative that is taking hold in the Republican Party. The latter story line asserts that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, including with the baseless theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

How Trump Got Caught Red Handed by the Impeachment Inquiry: