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 :

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with occasional afternoon thundershowers and a daytime high of eighty-one.  Sunrise is 5:58 AM and sunset 8:00 PM, for 14h 02m 10s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Unified School District Board meets at 6 PM in closed session, with an open session beginning at 7 PM.

Item 2A on the agenda for the meeting describes the purpose of the closed session: “Adjourn into closed session, pursuant to the provisions of Sec. 19.85(1)(c), Wis. Stats., considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility; specifically, to discuss the middle school principal candidate and contract. (Action Item).”

Item 4E describes names the candidate: “Employment – ADMINISTRATOR – Middle School Principal. Motion to approve the employment of Chris Fountain, middle school principal effective ???” [Question marks in original.]

The agenda includes a staff background sheet on Chris Fountain (.pdf), who is now principal of Turtle Creek Elementary School in the Delavan Darien School District, with additional background available in a 2016 news release from that district at the time of his original hiring as a middle school associate principal.

Item 5A on the agenda lists Staffing and Programming Recommendations (Possible Action Item): “Motion to approve the 2019-20 staffing and programming recommendations, as presented.”

The agenda lists these recommendations:

Whitewater’s Planning Commission also meets at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1939, the Wizard of Oz has its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Recommended for reading in full:

Eric Fanning, former Secretary of the Army, remembers When Children at the Border Got Compassion (‘The United States has a moral responsibility for unaccompanied children—and took it seriously, at least in 2014’):

In the spring of 2014, a sudden surge of unaccompanied children began crossing the southern border from Mexico into the United States. I was the undersecretary of the Air Force at the time, and the Pentagon had been tasked with finding facilities and funds so that the Department of Health and Human Services could shelter children until they were reunited with family. It was my job to review the housing that the Air Force would provide. So, with a few others from the Pentagon, I flew down to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to see for myself that these children were being cared for and protected…..

It was hard for any of us to understand the trauma the children had already experienced. But we knew that our role—our moral responsibility—was not merely to deal with them, but to care for them. And that is exactly what our country did.

We set up multiple facilities on military bases, and HHS worked with a coalition of organizations to shelter these vulnerable children while we looked for proper guardians. There was an outpouring of local community support, from church groups making food to a nearby school donating artificial turf for a soccer field.

A different set of values is now on display, as a new surge of migrants from Central America is fleeing northward toward the United States. Many are escaping extreme violence, while others are yearning for a better life for themselves and their families. Upon their arrival at the American border, the United States is placing these people—including children—in appalling physical conditions, needlessly turning an immigration challenge into a humanitarian crisis.

The policies currently in effect include stripping kids from their families, holding them in conditions unfit for human health, and prioritizing their incarceration over placing them with family or guardians. Every news cycle brings to light new revelations that tug at our hearts: young children caring for infants; kids covered in food and filth, sleeping on cold floors with the lights always on; officials arguing that “safe and sanitary” doesn’t mean providing soap or toothbrushes, let alone the mental-health services children going through traumatic experiences require.

Kung Fu Nuns:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered thundershowers with a daytime high of eighty.  Sunrise is 5:57 AM and sunset 8:02 PM, for 14h 04m 40s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 86% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1919, the Green Bay Packers are founded.

Recommended for reading in full:

David Frum observes The Shame and Disgrace Will Linger:

Today [8.10], President Trump accused his predecessor, Bill Clinton—or possibly his 2016 campaign opponent, former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—of complicity in the death of the accused sex-trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein

Many seem to have responded with a startled shrug. What do you expect? It’s just Trump letting off steam on Twitter.

Reactions to actions by Trump are always filtered through the prism of the ever-more-widely accepted view—within his administration, within Congress, within the United States and around the world—that the 45th president is a reckless buffoon, a conspiratorial racist moron, whose weird comments should be disregarded by sensible people.

….

The certainty that Trump will descend ever deeper into sub-basements of “new lows” after this new low should not numb us to its newness and lowness.

Neither the practical impediments to impeachment and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment process, nor the foibles and failings of the candidates running to replace him, efface the fact that this presidency shames and disgraces the office every minute of every hour of every day. And even when it ends, however it ends, the shame will stain it still.

Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold report How a Trump construction crew has relied on immigrants without legal status:

For nearly two decades, the Trump Organization has relied on a roving crew of Latin American employees to build fountains and waterfalls, sidewalks and rock walls at the company’s winery and its golf courses from New York to Florida.

Other employees at Trump clubs were so impressed by the laborers — who did strenuous work with heavy stone — that they nicknamed them “Los Picapiedras,” Spanish for “the Flintstones.”

For years, their ranks have included workers who entered the United States illegally, according to two former members of the crew. Another employee, still with the company, said that remains true today.

President Trump “doesn’t want undocumented people in the country,” said one worker, Jorge Castro, a 55-year-old immigrant from Ecuador without legal status who left the company in April after nine years. “But at his properties, he still has them.”

While the Trump family benefits from undocumented workers at their properties, Trump uses federal power to torment undocumented workers and their families in other parts of the country:

Adam Serwer is right to contend that cruelty is the point; this is a policy by the worst for the worst.

America will need an accounting of those who used the state power in this way, down to the last person. We are, fortunately, an advanced society in which records are easily compiled.

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see morning showers with a daytime high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset 8:03 PM, for 14h 07m 09s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 77.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1846, Pres. Polk signs legislation to establish the Smithsonian Institution as “an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Todd Richmond reports Expert: More than 500 Wisconsin elections clerks use outdated systems:

Election officials across the country have stepped up efforts to block hackers from wreaking havoc during the 2020 contests after Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential election. Congress has been warned that there could be more foreign interference next year, when Wisconsin is expected to be a presidential swing state again.

But Wisconsin Elections Commission Election Security Lead Tony Bridges said in a memo to commissioners released Friday that some local clerks are still logging into the state election system using Windows XP or Windows 7.

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP in 2014 and said it will stop providing free security updates for Windows 7 in January. Bridges wrote that it’s safe to assume a large percentage of clerks won’t upgrade before the deadline or pay for updates. Even clerks with current operating systems often fail to install security patches, he said.

The failure to maintain current operating systems exposes state elections to tremendous risk, Bridges wrote. He pointed to an incident in March in which a ransomware variant called Ryuk shut down vital systems in Jackson County, Georgia, including computers supporting emergency dispatch. Ransomware is software designed to shut down computer systems or data until a ransom is paid.

Ryuk gained access to the systems through a file-sharing vulnerability in older networks. An update that eliminated the vulnerability had been available since 2017, but no one had bothered to install it. The county ended up paying a $400,000 ransom to unlock the system.

Lawrence Andrea reports Wisconsin election officials consider lending new equipment to towns with outdated systems:

Wisconsin elections officials are considering spending more than $800,000 to replace outdated equipment, update software and further address computer security as the state prepares for the 2020 presidential election.

Among the proposals in a Wisconsin Elections Commission plan is to establish a program that would lend new computers to municipalities with outdated operating systems.

More than 500 state elections system users are on computer systems that have reached the end of their life or will do so in the next six months, according to a commission memo. Some of these users have plans to update their systems, but the commission is proposing lending 250 devices to municipalities unable to replace them.

The loans will be free and distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. The equipment is expected to cost up to $300,000.

How Trucking Companies Master Data Collection:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 5:55 AM and sunset 8:05 PM, for 14h 09m 35s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 68.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments fight at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia.

Recommended for reading in full:

Catherine Rampell writes For Trump and his cronies, draining the swamp means ousting experts:

The latest, most egregious example involves the Economic Research Service, an independent statistical agency at the Agriculture Department.

….

The small-but-mighty ERS is arguably the world’s premier agricultural economics agency. It produces critical numbers that farmers rely on when deciding what to plant and how much, how to price, how to manage risk; and that other stakeholders and public officials use to evaluate agricultural policy.

However, because it is independent, the ERS produces research that the Trump administration sometimes finds inconvenient, such as who has really been helped by his tax cuts, how climate change might affect agriculture or how his trade wars hurt farmers.

The administration’s solution to these inconveniences? Blowing up the agency altogether.

In June, the Agriculture Department informed employees at the ERS and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which manages $1.7 billion in scientific funding, that they were moving to “the Kansas City Region,” precise location TBD. Employees had 30 days to decide whether to uproot their families or lose their jobs.

As of July 26, only 116 employees agreed to relocate, according to a USDA spokesperson. That’s about 20 percent of those initially asked. Representatives from the employees’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, told me they expect even fewer to ultimately move, since some employees who said they’d relocate are searching for other opportunities.

John Fritze reports A USA TODAY analysis found Trump used words like ‘invasion’ and ‘killer’ at rallies more than 500 times since 2017:

Invasion. Aliens. Killers. Criminals.

Those are among the words President Donald Trump repeatedly uses while discussing illegal immigration during his campaign rallies, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the transcripts from more than five dozen of those events.

Trump, who traveled Wednesday to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, to meet with victims and family members reeling from mass shootings, is facing pressure from critics who say his language has fed a climate of anger toward immigrants, raising the risk of violence. A manifesto authorities believe was written by the El Paso gunman before his attack decries “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

But “invasion” is just one of several incendiary terms Trump regularly embraces.

A USA TODAY analysis of the 64 rallies Trump has held since 2017 found that, when discussing immigration, the president has said “invasion” at least 19 times. He has used the word “animal” 34 times and the word “killer” nearly three dozen times.

How Americans Learned to Love Their Front Lawns:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 5:54 AM and sunset 8:06 PM, for 14h 12m 02s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 58.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, Pres. Nixon announces his resignation, to take effect the next day at noon.

Recommended for reading in full:

Molly Beck reports Nearly everyone supports universal background checks for gun buyers. Here’s why Wisconsin is unlikely to make it law:

The vast majority of people in Wisconsin agree on making that policy change, according to 2018 polling by Marquette University Law School. Nationally, 96% of Democrats, 84% of Republicans and 89% of Independents support the measure, according to a recent Marist poll.

Despite overwhelming support, the move likely won’t be made here anytime soon.

“For any Republican to say ‘I support universal background checks’ would be career suicide,” Clemson University political scientist Steven Miller said.

The National Rifle Association’s political arm likely would help elect a primary opponent of any Republican candidate who seeks or supports such restrictions, Miller said, and support for the added safeguard, while wide, isn’t that intense.

“Most people think that’s a good idea, but most people don’t care too much and the people who oppose that are really serious about that,” he said. “Because the minority is much more mobilized, they are more likely to get what they want.”

  VOX-Pol released its latest report in the VOX-Pol publication series, titled The Alt-Right Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Audience for Alt-Right Content on Twitter, authored by J.M. Berger, on 15 October 2018:

Key Findings

There were four overlapping themes apparent that dominated the alt-right network in this study:

• Support for US President Donald Trump, support for white nationalism, opposition to immigration (often framed in anti-Muslim terms), and accounts primarily devoted to transgressive trolling and harassment.

• @realdonaldtrump was the most influential Twitter account among all users analysed in this study; @richardbspencer was the most influential account within the specific network of users who followed accounts that contained the phrase ‘alt-right’ in their Twitter profiles.

• Support for Trump outstripped all other themes by a wide margin, including references to his name and various campaign slogans in hashtags and user self-descriptions. The most common word in user profiles was ‘MAGA’ (short for Make America Great Again, Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan), and the most common word pair in user profiles was ‘Trump supporter’.

• The alt-right network was most consistently ‘for’ Trump, but users frequently defined themselves by what they were ‘against’. Top word pairs in user self-descriptions included ‘anti-EU’, ‘anti-Islam’, ‘anti-globalist’, ‘anti-feminist’ and ‘anti-Zionist’.

• While the alt-right’s presence on Twitter was substantial, probably encompassing more than 100,000 users as a conservative estimate, the sample analysed here showed extensive evidence of manipulation, including manipulated follower counts, follower tracking, and automated tweeting. Neither the source nor the exact scope of these efforts could be conclusively determined.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Amos-17 communications satellite for Spacecom Ltd. of Israel on Aug. 6, 2019: