Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty-eight.  Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 11m 40s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, the Wisconsin 10th Light Artillery fights in the Battle of Waynesborough, Georgia.

Recommended for reading in full:

Aaron Blake writes John Kennedy vs. Vladimir Putin: How Trump defenders’ Ukraine talking points compare to what Russians say:

On Sunday, for the second time in two weekends, Republican Sen. John Neely Kennedy (La.) spouted what U.S. officials have characterized as Russian propaganda about 2016 election interference. After suggesting that Ukraine rather than Russia might have hacked the Democrats in 2016 — and then recanting — he took to another show this weekend and said that he believes “both Russia and Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.”

David Corn writes How the Republicans Are Trying to Gaslight America With Their Impeachment Report:

In a slapdash fashion, staffers for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who has been implicated himself in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, and two other Republican ranking members—Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Michael McCaul of Texas—have cobbled together a report on the impeachment inquiry that unshockingly proclaims Donald Trump innocent of…everything. This document was released on Monday ahead of the committee’s 300-page, highly detailed summary of its investigation and hearings that was unveiled on Tuesday and forwarded to the judiciary committee for that panel’s impeachment deliberations.

See also The GOP’s impeachment report is a series of red herrings.

Margaret Sullivan writes ‘I don’t know what to believe’ is an unpatriotic cop-out. Do better, Americans:

The New York Times published a story Monday with this headline: “ ‘No one believes anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News.” The reporters quoted a Wisconsin woman who said she didn’t know what to think of the various conflicting claims she’d heard about President Trump’s apparent abuse of power.

“You have to go in and really research it,” she said, and she doubted that many people cared enough to do that.

….

If every American did any two of the following things, the “who knows?” club could be swiftly disbanded.

Subscribe to a national newspaper and go beyond the headlines into the substance of the main articles; subscribe to your local newspaper and read it thoroughly — in print, if possible; watch the top of “PBS NewsHour” every night; watch the first 15 minutes of the half-hour broadcast nightly news; tune in to a public-radio news broadcast; do a simple fact-check search when you hear conflicting claims.

For those who can’t afford to subscribe to newspapers, almost all public libraries can provide access.

“Whatever the president wants us to believe, there are tested and reliable news sources,” [chief operating officer of PEN America Dru] Menaker noted. “There are even more firsthand sources than ever where you can judge yourself — links to documents, video clips, hours of televised testimony.”

What Is Inside a Black Hole?:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of forty-one.  Sunrise is 7:08 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 12m 52s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 42.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1947, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee becomes Wisconsin’s first television station.

Recommended for reading in full:

Bob Bauer writes Trump Is the Founders’ Worst Nightmare (‘Once in the Oval Office, a demagogue can easily stay there’):

Donald Trump’s Republican congressional allies are throwing up different defenses against impeachment and hoping that something may sell. They say that he didn’t seek a corrupt political bargain with Ukraine, but that if he did, he failed, and the mere attempt is not impeachable. Or that it is not clear that he did it, because the evidence against him is unreliable “hearsay.”

It’s all been very confusing. But the larger story — the crucial constitutional story — is not the incoherence of the president’s defense. It is more that he and his party are exposing limits of impeachment as a response to the presidency of a demagogue.

The founders feared the demagogue, who figures prominently in the Federalist Papers as the politician who, possessing “perverted ambition,” pursues relentless self-aggrandizement “by the confusions of their country.” The last of the papers, Federalist No. 85, linked demagogy to its threat to the constitutional order — to the “despotism” that may be expected from the “victorious demagogue.” This “despotism” is achieved through systematic lying to the public, vilification of the opposition and, as James Fenimore Cooper wrote in an essay on demagogues, a claimed right to disregard “the Constitution and the laws” in pursuing what the demagogue judges to be the “interests of the people.”

Should the demagogue succeed in winning the presidency, impeachment in theory provides the fail-safe protection. And yet the demagogue’s political tool kit, it turns out, may be his most effective defense. It is a constitutional paradox: The very behaviors that necessitate impeachment supply the means for the demagogue to escape it.

Catherine Rampell writes The more love Always Trumpers show, the more dangerous Trump becomes:

You’ve heard of the Never Trumpers. That’s the president’s catchall slur for anyone who criticizes him or at least accurately attests to something unsavory he’s done.

But let’s talk instead for a moment about the true risk to our democracy: the Always Trumpers. These are people such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) and even the once-reasonable-sounding Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.), who excuse away any evidence of impeachment-worthy misdeeds no matter how damning.

The Always Trumpers represent a sprawling group of lackeys and co-conspirators, willing to aid, abet and (most importantly) adore President Trump no matter what he’s credibly accused of. Come hell or high crimes, Always Trumpers always truckle to Trump.

It doesn’t matter whether he’s extorting a desperate ally into announcing a fake investigation into a domestic political rival, compromising both that ally’s national security and ours. The Always Trumpers, many of whom were once Russia hawks, will stand by their man.

Trekking Through the Appalachian Mountains:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of thirty-three.  Sunrise is 7:07 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 14m 08s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 33.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1954, the United States Senate votes (67-22) to censure Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Recommended for reading in full:

Bill Lueders writes Robin Vos Stonewalls on Public Records:

One of the requesters who was told by Vos’ office “We have no records responsive to your request” was Grafton resident Robert W. Chernow, who has asked for records regarding the way that state Senate District 8 was redistricted after the 2010 Census.

Chernow, in an interview, says he was trying to learn more about how the voter boundaries of this Senate district were redrawn to the advantage of Republican incumbent Alberta Darling.

After being told that no responsive records exist, Chernow says he repeatedly called Vos’ office and asked to talk to Fawcett. “Every time they heard my name the word came back that he’s not available,” Chernow says. “After about six times, I got the hint that he would not talk to me.”

And so Chernow sent a letter dated Nov. 13 to the office of the State Attorney General, which has statutory authority for interpreting and enforcing Wisconsin’s open records law. His letter notes that there have been repeated mentions in the press regarding the $850,000 fee paid by the state to a law firm advising Vos on the issue of redistricting.

“Would not Mr. Vos still have possession of this information?” Chernow asks, adding, “I cannot understand the statement that there are no records.” He continues: “Were these records destroyed? Are taxpayer funded projects that affect [the public’s] representation not public?”

Chernow says that the only response he’s gotten from Vos’ office is an Oct. 15 letter from Fawcett informing him that it had no records at all in response to his request, adding, “We now consider this matter closed.”

Elyse Samuels and Monica Akhtar write Are ‘bots’ manipulating the 2020 conversation? Here’s what’s changed since 2016:

The term “bots” often refers to automated accounts that publish lots of content and infiltrate online communities to try to sway online conversations.

….

“So the battle-space in 2020 is going to be a lot more complicated. And the hardest part of the response is going to be attributing any particular piece of activity to any particular actor,” Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at network analysis firm Graphika, told The Washington Post. “The most important thing is to isolate the behavior which is trying to distort the debate, is trying to interfere with the election, and make sure that that behavior doesn’t actually have an impact.”

….

Data scientists also point to new, more evolved tactics such as “inorganic coordinated activity” as a more nuanced online threat. “Inorganic coordinated activity” is when a group of humans, bots or a combination of both attempts to influence the online conversation by strategically releasing premeditated messaging at a specific time. The goal is for a small number of accounts — human or automated — to appear larger on Twitter than they are in reality.

Can Planting Billions Of Trees Halt Climate Change?:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered snow showers with a high of thirty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 15m 27s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 25% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” of a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled.

Recommended for reading in full:

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes In impeachment hearings, lessons on the erosion of American democracy:

Is America becoming a 21st-century-style authoritarian state? The impeachment hearings of the last weeks would seem to provide an easy answer: no. The very fact that such an inquiry can be held, and broadcast on national television, is a sign that our democracy is working and that our institutions are holding.

Yet the impeachment hearings also showed how degraded our political culture has become and how much progress President Donald Trump has made in implementing the authoritarian playbook that he began to write for America during his campaign.

First, the hearings revealed just how much Trump’s cult of personality has tied subordinates to him, and how much of his playbook operates on keeping them in thrall to his singular threat: show loyalty, no matter what I say or do, or else.

A healthy democracy is founded on tolerance of differences of opinion, but is grounded in a shared body of norms. Autocratic governments, in contrast, need to change our opinion about what violates norms and constitutes crime and corruption.

E.J. Dionne Jr. writes What unites Trump’s apologists? Minority rule:

Two questions are asked again and again: How can white evangelical Christians continue to support a man as manifestly immoral as President Trump? And how can congressional Republicans refuse to condemn Trump’s thuggish effort to use taxpayer money to intimidate a foreign leader into helping his reelection campaign?

The answer to both relates to power — not just the power Trump now enjoys but also to the president’s faithfulness to a deal aimed at controlling American political life for a generation or more. Both evangelicals and Republican politicians want to lock in their current policy preferences, no matter how much the country changes or how sharply public opinion swings against them. As a party, the GOP now depends on empowering a minority over the nation’s majority.

This is reflected in its eagerness to enact laws restricting access to the ballot in states it controls. Rationalized as ways to fight mythical “voter fraud,” voter-ID statutes and the purging of voter rolls are designed to make it harder for African Americans, Latinos and young people to vote. The new electorate is a lot less Republican than the old one. The GOP much prefers the old one.

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons observes The GOP is not the party of G-O-D. Here’s why:

Tonight’s Sky for December 2019:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of thirty-nine.  Sunrise is 7:05 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 16m 50s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 17% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, Union forces are victorious at the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee), repulsing repeated Confederate assaults.

Recommended for reading in full:

Paul Kane writes Analysis: On impeachment, gender gap grows wider: 

Poll after poll shows a clear majority of women support both Trump’s impeachment in the House and a conviction in the Senate that would remove him from office, while roughly 6 in 10 men oppose such an outcome.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll, taken just before public hearings began, found that 56% of women supported impeachment and removing Trump from office, while just 40% of women want the president to stay in office. By contrast, 54% of men oppose impeachment, the poll showed.

….

Just look at the 2018 midterm elections, when 59% of women voted for the Democratic congressional candidate, and 51% of men voted for the Republican candidate.

Susan Simpson writes Here’s the Proof that Trump’s “No Quid Pro Quo” Call Never Happened:

At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between President Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September—with the second call having the possibility of helping the President’s case. That’s not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating.

The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was “no quid pro quo” with Ukraine, but he then went on to outline his preconditions for releasing the security assistance and granting a White House visit. The call was so alarming that when John Bolton learned of it, he ordered his’ deputy Tim Morrison to immediately report it to the National Security Council lawyers.

Sondland has testified there was a call on September 9th in which Trump said there was “no quid pro quo,” but that he wanted President Zelenskyy “to do” the right thing. A close reading of the publicly available evidence shows that the latter call was actually the very one that sent Morrison to the lawyers, and that Ambassador Bill Taylor foregrounded in his written deposition to inform Congress of the quid pro quo.

As this article was in the publication process at Just Security, the Washington Post published a report raising doubts about the existence of the September 9 call. The analysis that follows is consistent with the Post’s report and, among other points, shows why Sondland’s “no quid pro quo” call is in fact  the same as the September 7th call that Morrison reported to NSC lawyers on September 7th.

(Emphasis added. See article for its full, detailed analysis.)

How a few degrees of change can wreck Angola’s fishing economy:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:04 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 18m 17s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1961, Enos the chimpanzee orbits the Earth during the Mercury-Atlas 5 space flight.

Recommended for reading in full:

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists describes the China Cables:

NEW: #ChinaCables is a leak of highly classified Chinese documents that expose the inner workings of mass detention camps in Xinjiang and reveal, in the government’s own words, how it manages the day-to-day internment and forced indoctrination of Uighurs. https://t.co/Veoj40IKqB pic.twitter.com/7RL8mEzKur

— ICIJ (@ICIJorg) November 24, 2019

Panos Mourdoukoutas writes China Is Heading For A Long Growth Recession, Not Because Of The Trade War:

Nowadays, China is still trying to build wealth, but it’s doing the wrong way… by pursuing investments that do not raise the country’s productive capacity and growth potential.

Like bridges and roads to nowhere; like factories that no longer produce competitive products. Like apartments where nobody lives.

“If a country spends billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, its GDP will rise,” says Beckley.“But if those projects consist of bridges to nowhere, the country’s stock of wealth will remain unchanged or even decline.”

Simply put, bridges to nowhere have a “multiplier effect.” They create several rounds of jobs and income while the building takes place. But these bridges have no “accelerator effect.” They don’t create any jobs and income once the building is over.  They just waste the country’s precious resources, which could be used elsewhere.

That’s why bridges to nowhere undermine the country’s productivity and economic growth. “To accumulate wealth, a country needs to increase its productivity—a measure that has actually dropped in China over the last decade,” says Beckley. “Practically all of China’s GDP growth has resulted from the government’s pumping capital into the economy. Subtract government stimulus spending, some economists argue, and China’s economy may not be growing at all.”

A Thrilling Look at America’s First Extreme Sport: