Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see morning thunderstorms with a high of eighty.  Sunrise is 6:05 AM and sunset 7:51 PM, for 13h 46m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 91.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 37th, and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments take part in the Battle of Globe Tavern.

Recommended for reading in full:

Progressive evangelical (and Sanders supporter) Elizabeth Bruenig writes delicately of Trump-supporting evangelicals in In God’s country (‘Evangelicals view Trump as their protector. Will they stand by him in 2020?’).

Conservative evangelical Michael Gerson writes more fittingly of Trump-supporting evangelicals in Some white evangelicals are difficult to recognize as Christians at all:

Massive budget cuts to hunger-relief programs in Africa, refusing to take in desperate Syrian refugees and separating crying children from their parents at the border are tolerable, but using the Lord’s name in vain is a bridge too far? Pathological lying, spreading conspiracy theories, misogyny, making racist comments and dehumanizing others are permissible, but swearing somehow crosses the line?

How we order our outrage says much about us. Do we feel the violation of a religious rule more intensely than the violation of human dignity? Do we prioritize our religiosity above our anthropology — above our theory of human beings and their rights?

This kind of Pharisaical preference for rules over humans reveals a large gap of spiritual education. In a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research Center, only 25 percent of white evangelical Christians said the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees, while 65 percent of those not affiliated with a religion affirmed that duty. What could possibility explain this 40-percentage-point gap in inclusion and compassion? For a certain kind of secularist, this reveals cruelty, corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the Christian faith. But traditionally, many of the institutions that do refugee resettlement have been Christian.

The problem does not lie in Christianity but in the moral formation of Christians. Are they getting their view of refugees from Christian sources? Or are they taking their view from Fox News, talk radio and Trump? I suspect the latter. And the worship of political idols is ultimately a spiritual problem — a different kind of blasphemy.

These challenges run deeper than politics. Many white evangelical Christians hold a faith that appeals to the comfortable rather than siding with the afflicted. They have allied themselves with bigots and nativists, risking the reputation of the gospel itself. And, in some very public ways, they are difficult to recognize as Christians at all.

(Both Bruenig and Gerson are – in the complimentary language of our era – gifted. Yet Bruening’s admirable intellect fails her here, as she gives too much credence to self-identification at the expense of identity.  Gerson comes closer to the truth that self-identification becomes incredible when in opposition to any reasonable identity. Tabbies can, if they wish, call themselves lions; no one else is obligated to believe them.)

India’s Swimming Camels:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 6:04 AM and sunset 7:53 PM, for 13h 49m 22s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1864, Wisconsin soldiers bury Confederate dead at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.

Recommended for reading in full:

Colbert King writes Don’t waste your breath trying to convince Trump supporters he’s repugnant:

The sad truth is that with all that Trump has said and done, millions of Americans don’t see where he has ever crossed the line.

Slurring Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists? Calling for a ban on all Muslims coming into the country? Suggesting that a U.S.-born judge overseeing a Trump University lawsuit should recuse himself because of his Mexican heritage (“He’s a Mexican,” Trump said)? Saying people in the United States from Nigeria will never “go back to their huts”? Referring to Haiti and African countries as “s—hole countries” while wishing the United States would take more people from places like Norway? Tweeting that four black and brown members of Congress — three of them born in the United States — should “go back” to their countries of origin? Launching a slimy birther crusade against President Barack Obama? Constantly resorting to racially charged language?

….

It doesn’t bother them at all when Trump resorts to racist, sexist and religiously intolerant tropes in his onslaughts.

Face it. They helped put — and are now fighting like mad to keep — a prejudiced president in the White House. What does that say about them?

What does it say about the rest of us if we let them?

(Emphasis added.  See also Trump, His Inner Circle, Principal Surrogates, and Media Defenders and Trumpism Down to the Local Level. It’s Trumpist officials and self-described movers-and-shakers at all levels who should be the main focus of one’s efforts.)

Riley Vetterkind reports GOP Twitter block will cost Wisconsin taxpayers $200,000:

Wisconsin taxpayers will pay a liberal group’s attorneys $200,000 because Republican lawmakers blocked them on Twitter.

State officials agreed Thursday to pay the legal bills for One Wisconsin Now’s attorneys. A federal judge ruled in January that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. John Nygren, both Republicans, had infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights.

One Wisconsin Now routinely criticizes Republicans on Twitter and other platforms. In 2017, it sued Vos, Nygren and then-Rep. Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum for blocking it.

U.S. District Judge William Conley concluded the three lawmakers had acted unconstitutionally by blocking the group on Twitter “because of its prior speech or identity.”

Kremer didn’t run for reelection and was dropped from the lawsuit after he shut down his official Twitter account.

(Infringement is expensive; don’t infringe.)

Republican stronghold Orange County goes from red to blue:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with scattered showers and a high of seventy-seven.  Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:54 PM, for 13h 51m 58s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush begins.

Recommended for reading in full:

Molly Beck reports Robin Vos accuses paralyzed lawmaker of trying to sabotage him by seeking accommodations:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos accused a paralyzed Democratic lawmaker of trying to sabotage a new national role for the Republican legislative leader by publicly seeking accommodations for his disability.

“(This) does not seem like an accident to me,” Vos told a conservative radio show host Thursday. “Everything they do is political and trying to make the other side look bad.”

Vos, of Rochester, earlier this year rejected Democratic Rep. Jimmy Anderson’s request to be able to call into legislative meetings he cannot attend because of his disability and to bar overnight floor sessions, which Anderson cannot participate in fully for the same reason.

Vos told WISN’s Jay Weber he believes the timing of Anderson’s public appeal, which included speaking to a Journal Sentinel reporter, was meant to undermine the announcement of Vos taking over as president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But Democratic legislative leaders made the request in February and Anderson reached out to a Journal Sentinel reporter in May. Vos took over the new role earlier this month, 10 days after the story was published.

“I didn’t know he was going to be named president of the NCSL until after the story had come out,” Anderson said. “The idea that I would somehow sit and wait to make Robin Vos look bad — he’s doing that all by himself. I asked for these accommodations months and months ago.”

(Vos: a small man with a big self-impression.)

Amy Taxin reports Panel rules soap, sleep essential to migrant kids’ safety:

Immigrant children detained by the U.S. government should get edible food, clean water, soap and toothpaste under a longstanding agreement over detention conditions, a federal appeals panel ruled Thursday in dismissing a Trump administration bid to limit what must be provided.

A three-judge panel for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco tossed out the U.S. government’s challenge to a lower court’s findings that authorities had failed to provide safe and sanitary conditions for the children in line with a 1997 settlement agreement.

The government argued that authorities weren’t required to provide specific accommodations, such as soap, under the settlement’s requirement that facilities be “safe and sanitary” and asked the panel to weigh in. The appellate judges disagreed.

The Rise And Fall Of AOL:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven.  Sunrise is 6:01 AM and sunset 7:56 PM, for 13h 54m 33s of daytime.  The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1969, Woodstock opens.

Recommended for reading in full:

Molly Beck reports No Republicans sign letter urging Assembly speaker to allow paralyzed lawmaker to call in to meetings:

Republican colleagues of a paralyzed lawmaker haven’t signed a letter urging the state Assembly’s leader to allow the Democrat to call in to meetings when he’s unable to attend in person.

All 36 Democratic members of the Assembly signed a letter dated Aug. 8 asking the house’s Republican leaders to provide accommodations for Rep. Jimmy Anderson, which they say are reasonable and fall under requirements of the American Disabilities Act. None of the 63 Republicans attached their names to the letter.

Anderson also is asking Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to prohibit lawmakers from convening in floor sessions that stretch overnight unless there is an emergency purpose for doing so, to conduct business during reasonable hours and to assign an ADA coordinator to determine which accommodations requests should be granted.

“It costs the state nothing and only asks for those in power to be considerate of Representative Anderson’s disability,” the letter reads.

Anderson was paralyzed from the chest down in 2010 after a drunken driver collided with the vehicle he was traveling in, permanently injuring him and killing his family members.

The Fitchburg lawmaker wants to be able to call in to committee meetings when he has difficulty attending them in person for health reasons associated with his disability and to bar lawmakers from meeting overnight, which could prevent Anderson from being able to participate.

See also Speaker Vos’s Distorted Idea of Respect.

Bill Lueders writes Some Wisconsin public officials are using privacy arguments to justify government secrecy:

Perhaps the most outrageous recent example of secrecy in the name of privacy is the news that Jake Patterson, the man convicted of abducting 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents, has been moved to an out-of-state prison whose location is not being disclosed, according to a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, “for his safety.” We only know he is now in a prison in New Mexico because the Green Bay Press Gazette was able to determine this independently.

So now Wisconsin is officially sending people to secret prisons to protect their privacy. Don’t ask, because the state won’t tell.

Why the US has so many tornadoes:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see occasional thundershowers with a daytime high of seventy-five.  Sunrise is 6:00 AM and sunset 7:57 PM, for 13h 57m 06s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s Parks & Rec Board meets today.

On this day in 1864, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry is among the Union forces beginning an expedition to Jasper, Georgia.

Recommended for reading in full:

 Heather Long reports Trump finally acknowledges his tariffs could hit consumers:

President Trump has repeated the same mantra for months: The Chinese are paying the full price of his tariffs. It’s a line that the overwhelming majority of economists and business owners say is false, but Trump kept saying it — until Aug. 13.

The White House announced Tuesday that the president’s latest tariffs on China would be delayed on many popular items like cellphones, laptops and strollers. The 10 percent tax would not go into effect until Dec. 15, effectively ensuring retailers can import goods for the holidays before the tariffs take effect.

Trump himself told reporters the delay is to ensure consumers don’t face higher costs this Christmas. Here are his full remarks:

“We are doing this for the Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. consumers. So far they’ve had virtually none. The only impact has been that we’ve collected almost $60 billion from China, compliments of China. But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so they won’t be relevant for the Christmas shopping season,” Trump told reporters before he flew to western Pennsylvania.

He used qualifying phrases such as “just in case” and “might have,” but his words — and actions — are a noticeable change from his insistence that the Chinese are paying the full cost of his tariffs. (Note that the harm to American farmers comes from China’s counter-tariffs, which Trump has sought to offset with a bailout targeting farm country.)

Mary Clare Jalonick reports Analysis shows 12% could vote without paper backup in 2020:

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than one in 10 voters could cast ballots on paperless voting machines in the 2020 general election, according to a new analysis, leaving their ballots more vulnerable to hacking.

A study released by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law on Tuesday evaluates the state of the country’s election security six months before the New Hampshire primary and concludes that much more needs to be done. While there has been significant progress by states and the federal government since Russian agents targeted U.S. state election systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the analysis notes that many states have not taken all of the steps needed to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

See also Brennan Center study: Voting Machine Security: Where We Stand Six Months Before the New Hampshire Primary. 

A Bright Green Perseid Fireball Streaks Across Night Sky:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with  a daytime high of eighty.  Sunrise is 5:59 AM and sunset 7:59 PM, for 13h 59m 38s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 A City of Whitewater Joint Public Works and Finance Committee will meet at 6 PM.

On this day in 1961, Communist East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall.

Recommended for reading in full:

 AJ Vicens reports Mayberry v. Moscow: How Local Officials Are Preparing to Defend the 2020 Elections:

In early June, the Allegheny County Board of Elections held a special meeting in downtown Pittsburgh, inviting a trio of election security experts to offer advice as the county selects new voting equipment. Marian Schneider, a former Pennsylvania state elections official and the current president of Verified Voting, an election security watchdog group, gave an opening statement framing the day’s conversation in stark terms.

….

After the meeting, Candice Hoke, a longtime election administration and security expert who’d also been invited to speak, described the gathering as an unusual bright spot, contrasting the attention Allegheny County had devoted to the issue to many places around the country where the state of election security lags. Efforts by federal agencies to work with states and jurisdictions to improve election security are helping, Hoke says, but the bureaucrats overseeing the country’s more than 10,000 election jurisdictions are still routinely outmatched.

Megan Squire writes How big tech and policymakers miss the mark when fighting online extremism:

Now, critics of Big Tech are lining up to plead, cajole, and threaten—from the left and right. In June, Senators Cruz (R-TX) and Hawley (R-MO) proposed legislation that would require social media companies over a certain size to prove no political bias when moderating content. Convinced that conservatives voices are being unfairly targeted, they followed up with a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into moderation policies on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. In July, Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, filed suit against Google for, among other things, “playing favorites, with no warning, no transparency—and no accountability” in their content moderation.

As with the reactive policies implemented by the media companies themselves, this legislation and lawsuit are also naïvely focused on yesterday’s problems. They do not acknowledge the way the platforms are actually being gamed today, nor how they will be abused tomorrow.

Serial harassers and trolls will always figure out tricks to avoid the bans, and even if they somehow catch a block that sticks, the growing “Alt Tech” ecosystem made of decentralized, niche services often located in other countries, is more than willing to scoop them up. Finally banned from YouTube? Try Bitchute or DLive. De-platformed from Facebook or Twitter? Try Telegram, Parler, or Gab—the site favored by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter back in October 2018—or the so-called “image boards” like 8chan, where the Christchurch, San Diego, and El Paso shooters all posted their manifestos.

How Hong Kong’s Protesters Evade Police and Keep the Demonstrations Alive :