Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-nine.  Sunrise is 5:32 AM and sunset 8:29 PM, for 14h 57m 29s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1832, during the Black Hawk War, General Atkinson writes General Winfield Scott that he has finished constructing Fort Koshkonong.

Recommended for reading in full:

Daniel Dale reports Trump makes 13 false claims in Cabinet meeting:

President Donald Trump uttered a rapid series of false claims, at least 13 in all, during his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. He made another claim for which there is no public evidence, and he offered positive words about an ally’s accusation for which there is no public evidence.

Fred Barbash writes Trump’s racist comments can be used against him in court as judges cite them to block policies:

President Trump’s latest racist remarks, like many of his comments before them, can and will be used against him in court.

And if his losing record on immigration cases is any guide, they will be used effectively.

In conjunction with other factors, they could help persuade judges to block policies he claims are crucial to his agenda, particularly on immigration, on the grounds of racial or ethnic animus.

That’s been the pattern ever since Trump took office.

His words — about Mexican immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers” and “rapists,” Nigerians going back “to their huts,” Haitians all having AIDS, or of too many migrants from “shithole countries” — have helped stall much of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

It hasn’t been any particular comment that has made the difference in court but rather the accumulation of them.

Watch this diver stumble upon a jellyfish as big as she is:

Lizzie Daly was diving Saturday off the coast of Cornwall in Britain when she saw something large in the distance and did a double take. Daly had seen a barrel jellyfish before but nothing of this size.

Daly, a biologist and broadcaster, swam up to the peach-colored creature gliding through the water, as cameraman Dan Abbott captured the encounter.

“We weren’t expecting anything,” Daly said. “It was an absolute delight to get that experience.”

Abbott and Daly were diving as part of Wild Ocean Week, a fundraising campaign for the Marine Conservation Society of the United Kingdom created by Daly, that was meant to document various marine species off the coast.

“My first reaction was that I’ve never seen a jellyfish that size in my life,” Abbott said. Then, he was focused on staying out of its way and attempting to capture a video of the “beautiful, majestic, slow-moving, graceful animal.”

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-six.  Sunrise is 5:31 AM and sunset 8:30 PM, for 14h 59m 04s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Board meets at 6:00 PM, and Common Council at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1945, the United States detonates the first atomic bomb in a test in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Marc Fisher writes Behind Trump’s ‘go back’ demand: A long history of rejecting ‘different’ Americans:

The Know-Nothings wanted German and Irish immigrants to get out because they were allegedly subversive and diseased people who were stealing American jobs. White preachers and politicians of the 1820s urged freed blacks to move to West Africa, supposedly for their own good.

From that drive to encourage blacks to go back where they came from to waves of nativist attacks on Catholics, Jews, Asians and Hispanics in nearly every generation that followed, “go home” rhetoric is as American as immigration itself.

President Trump’s raw assertion of nativist language, in attacks Sunday and Monday on four Democratic congresswomen — all of them U.S. citizens, three of them native-born — is consistent not only with his long history of attacks on people he perceives as the other, but also with the nation’s oscillating attitudes toward immigration.

Molly Beck reports Wisconsin Republicans mostly quiet about President Trump’s use of a racist trope:

Just one prominent Wisconsin Republican lawmaker has said anything about the president’s suggestion to Democratic congresswomen who are not white to go back to “crime infested places from which they came.”

In a state that has held the distinctions of being the worst for black children to live and having the most segregated areas in America, its most powerful lawmakers said little when the leader of their party used a notorious racist trope intended to make Americans who aren’t white feel like outsiders.

Toluse Olorunnipa writes Trump’s incendiary rhetoric is met with fading resistance from Republican and corporate leaders:

When Donald Trump assailed Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals during his 2015 presidential campaign launch, companies including Macy’s and NBC rushed to cut their business ties with him.

When a tape surfaced in 2016 of Trump boasting about grabbing women’s genitals, top Republican officials briefly pulled their endorsements, disinvited him from events and even sought to remove him from the ticket.

When, as president, Trump equivocated on condemning white supremacists in a deadly Virginia rally, top business leaders disbanded White House advisory boards in protest.

But on Monday, a day after he posted tweets promoting the racist trope that four minority congresswomen should “go back” to their countries of ancestry, the president waltzed onto the South Lawn of the White House with the confidence of a man fully supported by his party and by much of the corporate world that had once kept him at arm’s length.

A Total Solar Eclipse in a Drone Hyperlapse:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-seven.  Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 00m 37s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.  Whitewater’s School Board meets at 7 PM.  (See also Changes at Whitewater Middle School from FREE WHITEWATER on 7.11.19.)

On this day in 2006, Twitter launches.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Craig Gilbert reports Former Gov. Scott Walker to take the helm of conservative group, says he won’t run for office in 2022:

Former Gov. Scott Walker has accepted a full-time position running a national conservative youth organization based in northern Virginia.

Walker said the move rules out a run for his old job or any other political office in the next few years.

“This would preclude me from running for governor in this next cycle or running for the U.S. Senate if Ron Johnson’s seat is open,” Walker said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.

He said he is “absolutely thrilled” with his coming role as president of the Young America’s Foundation, a group that works to promote and popularize conservative ideas among young people.

Walker said he will not assume his full-time position until the beginning of 2021, when the group’s current president steps down after more than 40 years. He said his agreement with the organization is to serve at least four years.

The former governor said he will look for a residence in northern Virginia or Washington, D.C., but will also maintain one in Wisconsin.

Walker said he is announcing the move now in part to let potential candidates interested in Wisconsin’s governor or Senate seats know he won’t be competing for either of those two offices. One of those two posts is currently held by a member of Walker’s party, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, but Johnson hasn’t announced his plans, saying he might seek a third Senate term, run for governor or return to private life in 2022.

“Starting January 2021, this will be full-time,” Walker said of his new job. “I won’t be engaged in anything else. This will be my sole occupation.”

(Goodbye & good riddance to the creator of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, likely the least effective and most corrupt development agency of any state in the country.

All the while, the WEDC became the model for dozens of small-town copies of the same, littered with schemers, third-tier public relations men, and others of that unworthy ilk.  See also Three Fundamental Failures: Employment, Income, and Poverty and Reported Family Poverty in Whitewater Increased Over the Last Decade.)

 Thomas Jefferson: The First Foodie of America: 

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon thundershowers with a high of eighty-seven.  Sunrise is 5:29 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 02m 07s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Bastille Day.

Recommended for reading in full:

Journalist Justin King concludes outrage over a black actress in a remake of The Little Mermaid is absurd:

See also from Paquette Danielle, Africa celebrated black mermaids long before Disney and #NotMyAriel.

Isabela Zaluska reports Blacks arrested for pot possession at four times the rate of whites in Wisconsin (‘Gov. Tony Evers’ decriminalization proposal focuses on decreasing racial disparities in arrests; experts point to policing practices as the main issue’):

In fact, in 2018, blacks were four times as likely to be arrested as whites for marijuana possession in Wisconsin, a Wisconsin Watch review shows. Experts point to policing practices and the racial history behind marijuana prohibition as leading to arrest disparities.

….

In April, Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, unveiled a bill to fully legalize marijuana in Wisconsin. This is her fourth time introducing the bill. In this version, Sargent hopes to address racial disparities in the enforcement of Wisconsin’s marijuana laws by broadening the availability of expungement and releasing people incarcerated for low-level nonviolent marijuana offenses.

Milwaukee is the most segregated city in the United States, according to the Brookings Institution, which found that nearly 80% of blacks would have to move to another neighborhood in the city to achieve full integration.

In Milwaukee, blacks made up 72% of “small-scale” marijuana possession arrests but 39% of the population between 2012 and 2015, according to research by the Public Policy Forum, a nonprofit, independent research organization. The Milwaukee-based group defined “small scale” as possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana.

The same research found whites made up 12% of the arrests but 37% of the city’s population.

“The impact of being a person of color in our communities just makes it harder to live,” Sargent said.

(I’m a white non-smoker. Arresting Wisconsinites for marijuana possession is a wasteful policy for taxpayers but an entrenched employment and spending program for law enforcement.)

 Behold (and Beware) the Largest Lizards on Earth:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-six.  Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 03m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1787, Congress under the Articles of Confederation passes the Northwest Ordinance, creating “the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States, from lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between British North America and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The upper Mississippi River formed the territory’s western boundary.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Molly Beck and Mary Spicuzza report President Trump in Milwaukee says farmers are ‘over the hump’ as dairy farms continue to close in Wisconsin:

President Donald Trump raised $3 million in Wisconsin cash on Friday touring Milwaukee to promote a new trade deal he says will help rebuild the country’s wounded manufacturing and agriculture industry.

But in doing so, the president downplayed the suffocation felt by Wisconsin dairy farmers because of Trump’s own tariffs.

“These are great American patriots … the farmers (said) no, it’s not like things are perfect but we’re with our president,” Trump told a crowd at Derco Aerospace on Milwaukee’s northwest side. “Some of the farmers are doing well … We’re over the hump. We’re doing really well.”

Trump said the new trade agreement would help Wisconsin dairy farmers by providing access to Canada’s market, painting an optimistic picture of the Wisconsin industry’s future — which is losing almost two dairy farms a day.

Nearly 700 Wisconsin farms were shut down last year by owners used to enduring a brutal workload and hard times, calling it quits in a downturn now headed into its fifth year. In 2018, for the third straight year, Wisconsin led the nation in farm bankruptcies.

Peter Jamison and Juliet Eilperin report Trump’s Fourth of July event and weekend protests bankrupted D.C. security fund, mayor say:

President Trump’s overhauled Fourth of July celebration cost the D.C. government about $1.7 million, an amount that — combined with police expenses for demonstrations through the weekend — has bankrupted a special fund used to protect the nation’s capital from terrorist threats and provide security at events such as rallies and state funerals.

In a letter to the president Tuesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned that the fund has been depleted and is estimated to be running a $6 million deficit when the current fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The mayor also noted that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

[Read the mayor’s letter to the president here]

Bowser requested that the White House fully reimburse the fund. Without that money, city officials say, Washingtonians will be put in the unprecedented position of funding federal security needs with local tax dollars.

 Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings? We Found Them:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-four.  Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 04m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 80.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, Pres. Lincoln signs legislation to create the Medal of Honor.

Recommended for reading in full:

Julie K. Brown and David Smiley report New victims come forward as Epstein asks to be released from jail to his Manhattan mansion:

At least a dozen new victims have come forward to claim they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein even as the multimillionaire money manager tries to convince a federal judge to allow him to await a sex trafficking trial from the comfort of the same $77 million Manhattan mansion where he’s accused of luring teenage girls into unwanted sex acts.

Following Epstein’s arrest Saturday in New Jersey, four women have reached out to New York lawyer David Boies, and at least 10 other women have approached other lawyers who have represented dozens of Epstein’s alleged victims in the past.

Jack Scarola, a Palm Beach attorney, said at least five women, all of whom were minors at the time of their alleged encounters with Epstein, have reached out to either him or Fort Lauderdale lawyer Brad Edwards.

Alison Dirr and Bruce Vielmetti report Settlement calls for Milwaukee to pay $7.5 million to man convicted based on bogus bite mark evidence:

The City of Milwaukee would pay $7.5 million to a man wrongfully incarcerated for 24 years based on bogus bite mark evidence, under a resolution before the Common Council.

Robert Lee Stinson, 54, agreed to settle his claims against the city and one of its former police detectives for an initial payment of $3.5 million in August and $4 million in January, the resolution states.

The settlement was reached after about eight days in a jury trial over his claims that detectives and dentists conspired to frame him in his neighbor’s homicide using the bite mark evidence.

“Mr. Stinson waited a very long time for this trial — 34 years since his arrest and nearly 10 years since filing his civil rights lawsuit seeking redress for his wrongful conviction,” said Heather Lewis Donnell, one of his attorneys with the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy.

“Over the course of the week-and-half trial, the jury heard very powerful and moving testimony that convinced all sides that substantial compensation was in order. This is certainly the largest wrongful conviction settlement that Milwaukee has ever seen and one of the largest civil rights settlements as well.”

The city’s largest prior payout for wrongful conviction was $6.5 million to Chante Ott, who spent 13 years in prison for a homicide actually committed by serial killer Walter Ellis.

(Twenty-four years lost from official use of junk science.  The most developed society in the world and yet these men relied on little more than voodoo.)

NASA’s Search For Life On Titan, Explained:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of eighty.  Sunrise is 5:27 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 06m 18s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 71.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1839, the first patent is issued to a Wisconsin resident (patent #1232 for his improved plow).

Recommended for reading in full:

Devi Sashtra reports Bill by Alberta Darling breathes life into UWM professor’s fight for $1 million payout:

Weeks after the state’s financial claims board denied a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee business professor’s $1 million-plus compensation complaint, a senator has proposed a bill to pay him in full with money from the UW System.

That is if the bill passes. If it fails, which is likely, the legislation would enable UWM professor Timothy Smunt to sue the state — essentially taxpayers — for money he says he should have earned through his employee contract.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, introduced a bill Friday that would appropriate $1,039,134 in general program operations from the University of Wisconsin System to compensate the former Lubar School of Business dean.

….

Darling’s spokesman, Bob Delaporte, said the senator proposed the bill because Smunt is one of her constituents.

Delaporte said Tuesday such bills to help constituents are “just a part of being a legislator.”

Oliver Darcy reports Trump invites right-wing extremists to White House ‘social media summit’:

Some of the right-wing media universe’s biggest stars are set to descend on the White House Thursday for what has been billed as a “social media summit” and will likely become a forum for airing claims of anti-conservative social media bias.

In addition to inviting leaders from traditional conservative think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation and Claremont Institute, the White House has requested the presence of far-right internet personalities and trolls, some of whom have pushed conspiracy theories, lies and misinformation.

It’s perhaps the clearest example yet of President Trump legitimizing fringe political allies.

The White House has repeatedly declined to release a list people it expects to attend, but some of the recipients have turned to social media to boast about being invited.

Among them are Bill Mitchell, a radio host who has promoted the extremist QAnon conspiracy theory on Twitter; Carpe Donktum, an anonymous troll who won a contest put on by the fringe media organization InfoWars for an anti-media meme; and Ali Alexander, an activist who attempted to smear Sen. Kamala Harris by saying she is not an “American black” following the first Democratic presidential debates.

Other eyebrow raising attendees include James O’Keefe, the guerrilla journalist whose group Project Veritas tried to trick reporters at the Washington Post by planting a source who told the paper that she had been impregnated as a teenager by failed Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore; Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA who sometimes posts misleading information on social media; and Benny Johnson, the journalist-turned-activist who was fired for plagiarism by BuzzFeed and demoted at the Independent Journal Review for violating company standards.

 How Do We Solve the Problem of Predators?