Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see a bit of snow with a high of forty-one.  Sunrise is 6:20 AM and sunset 7:31 PM, for 13h 11m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 25.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1861, Sauk County volunteers join the Union Army:

On this date 26 volunteers from Sauk County departed for Madison where they became part of the First Wisconsin Infantry, Company F. By the end of the war, over one thousand men served in the Union Army from Sauk County.

Recommended for reading in full:

Eric Levitz writes If You Are Defending Stephen Miller, You Are an Ally of Anti-Semitism:

It is true that Stephen Miller is Jewish, and that white nationalists have historically targeted Jews for persecution. But this does not mean that Miller cannot be a white nationalist. There was a time in the U.S. when white supremacists were virulently anti-Catholic, and considered the Irish to be a subhuman race. That has not made it impossible for an Irish Catholic like Steve Bannon to openly endorse white-nationalist novels and thinkers.“White people” is not a coherent biological or ethnic category. It is a social caste with semi-porous borders. And by all appearances, Miller identifies with that caste. More to the point, there is no evidence whatsoever that [Democratic congresswoman Ilhan] Omar directed her criticism toward Miller because of his Jewish heritage and not because of his (undisputed) status as the White House’s most influential and hardline immigration adviser.

But the GOP’s decision to brand Omar’s comments as anti-Semitic is something much worse than unfair or unsupportable. It is confirmation that the party sees anti-Semitism less as a scourge to be combatted than as a political cudgel to be exploited.

….

It is worth noting that even if Trump’s revanchist nativism didn’t contain traces of anti-Semitism, it would remain a form of politics that endangers Diaspora Jews. Jewish reactionaries like Stephen Miller might be able to assimilate to the form of Americanism that Trump champions. But the vast majority of American Jews are liberal, cosmopolitan, and secularist. Which is to say: They are the “globalist” villains in Trumpism’s Manichaean fable of American decline.

And even if Trump’s politics did not endanger Jews, anyone who has ever uttered “never again” in earnest would still be obliged to oppose him. If you are a Jew who has “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism — but infinite tolerance for a president who describes immigrants as an “infestation,” and directs extrajudicial cruelty at their children — then you aren’t so different from the Nazis’ apologists. You share their conviction that some populations are entitled to basic rights, while others are not.

You just believe the führer should have included your people among the chosen.

Watch a Community Police Itself:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of sixty-four.  Sunrise is 6:21 AM and sunset 7:30 PM, for 13h 08m 44s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 16.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1865, the Confederate Army under Lee surrenders:

Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant caught up with Confederate forces commanded by General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were among the troops that had helped corner the enemy there. The 36th were present at the court house and witnessed the formal surrender ceremony.

Recommended for reading in full:

Amber Phillips describes Kirstjen Nielsen’s ignominious end:

As The Fix’s Aaron Blake has chronicled, Nielsen has blatantly contradicted or ignored findings by the State Department, the U.S. intelligence community and her own agency to toe the president’s line on a number of issues:

— Her agency’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. She once argued “we do not have a policy of separating families at the border, period,” even though it was her agency’s interpretation of existing law that separated the families. Trump implicitly acknowledged as much when he abruptly ended it, shortly after Nielsen tweeted that.

— Whether border crossings rise to a national emergency. When Trump went around Congress and declared a national emergency at the border to build his wall earlier this year, Nielsen had to go before lawmakers and defend that legally questionable move. But she was undercut by her boss when Trump said he didn’t have to declare this emergency.

— Trump’s worldview on race. She refused to confirm whether Trump called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries,” even though she was present at the meeting where it happened. Then, when asked by members of Congress why Trump said he wanted more immigrants from Norway instead of these majority-minority countries, she feigned ignorance that Norway is a mostly white country so as to avoid having to talk about the undeniable racial component of Trump’s comments.

— Whether terrorists are crossing the border. During the government shutdown fight over the border this year, Nielsen more than any other Trump official insisted on repeating a falsehood that terrorists have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The State Department has said there’s “no credible evidence” that terrorists are in Mexico trying to cross the border, let alone have made it across.

— Basic facts about Russian election interference. She has said she didn’t know if Russia interfered in the 2016 president election to help Trump win, despite a thorough intelligence report declaring as much. “That the specific intent was to help President Trump win? I’m not aware of that,” she said as recently as summer of 2018, more than two years after the report was released to the public.

Five Stories About Funky Foods:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-one.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 7:29 PM, for 13h 05m 54s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM.

On this day in 1865, Battle of Spanish Fort, Alabama, ends:

While the main Union army was chasing Robert E. Lee across Virginia, other Union forces, including the 8th, 11th, 14th, 20th, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, 33rd, and 35th Wisconsin Infantry regiments, captured Spanish Fort and seized control of Mobile Bay, Alabama.

Recommended for reading in full:

John Weaver, a Republican opposed to Trump, observes of departing Trump cabinet officer Kirstjen Nielsen:

Under no circumstances feel sorry for @SecNielsen She defended the policy desires of two psychopaths: Trump & that Miller, upping the ante to keep her job by putting children in cages, losing them in a “system,” & separating families. No major company can or should hire her.

(Her only economic and social prospects will come from disreputable organizations and people; she will live the rest of her life despised by normal society.)

Stephanie Baker reports Where Rudy Giuliani’s Money Comes From (“While he represents the president for free, he travels the world consulting, giving speeches, and building his brand”):

Long lauded as the prosecutor who skewered the New York Mafia and once known as “America’s mayor” for leading New York after Sept. 11, Giuliani is still courting clients for security contracts such as the one in Kharkiv. He’s made millions of dollars while acting as Trump’s unpaid consigliere—$9.5 million in 2017 and $5 million in 2018, according to disclosures from his ongoing divorce proceedings with his third wife, Judith Nathan. At the age of 74, Giuliani has eschewed a quiet retirement in favor of life in the limelight. “If I retired, I would shrivel up,” he said. “What I do is enormously exciting.” In addition to Ukraine, in the past two years he’s given speeches and done consulting and legal work in Armenia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, and Uruguay, among other countries.

Much about the Trump presidency is unprecedented, but Giuliani’s role is particularly unusual. His work abroad led seven Democratic senators in September to request that the U.S. Department of Justice review whether he should be disclosing his activities under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires registration by individuals and organizations acting as agents of foreign principals “in a political or quasi political capacity.” FARA was rarely a hot topic until 2017, when Mueller indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates for failing to register as foreign agents as required.

“As President Trump’s personal attorney, Mr. Giuliani communicates in private with the president and his senior staff on a regular basis,” the senators wrote to the Justice Department. “Without further review, it is impossible to know whether Mr. Giuliani is lobbying U.S. government officials on behalf of foreign clients.”

What’s the Deal with the Goodyear Blimp?:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see occasional showers with a high of sixty-two.  Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 7:28 PM, for 13h 03m 04s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, American aircraft destroy the Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed:

During 1944, the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan, and by early 1945, its fleet was much depleted and badly hobbled by critical fuel shortages in the home islands. In a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, Yamato was dispatched on a one-way mission to Okinawa in April 1945, with orders to beach herself and fight until destroyed protecting the island. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April 1945 she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew.

Recommended for reading in full:

Roger Lowenstein writes How Trump would make the Fed a partisan tool:

Like Nixon, Trump is unhappy with the Fed for raising rates. He has tried to browbeat the Federal Reserve Board into submission through Twitter attacks on the Fed and on Powell, personally.

It’s hard to imagine that, if approved, Moore will be a voice for independence. Moore has pandered to the president by repeating Trump’s criticisms of the Fed. He has groveled to Trump by suggesting he deserves the Nobel Prize. With Arthur Laffer, he has written a fawning book, “Trumponomics.” Moore is also good friends with Larry Kudlow, Trump’s economic adviser.

Moore thus bids to become a new of kind of board member — a presidential lackey. Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economist who had Kudlow’s job in the Bush administration, said, in reviewing “Trumponomics,” that it was written in the voice “of the rah-rah partisan.” Were Trump to fill the board with partisans, the Fed’s prestige would collapse, and so would its ability to implement policy.

Heather Long reports Trump’s Fed nominee Stephen Moore was found in contempt of court for failing to pay ex-wife more than $333,000:

Stephen Moore, President Trump’s planned nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, was found in contempt of court in 2013 for failing to pay his ex-wife more than $330,000 in alimony and child support, court documents show.

A court in Fairfax County, Va., ordered Stephen Moore to sell his home in order to pay his ex-wife, Allison Moore, the money he legally owed her but had failed to pay for months. Stephen Moore ended up paying $217,000, although only after the court sent several police officers, two real estate agents and a locksmith to his home to change the locks and prepare the property for sale, records show.

(Moore: unfit professionally and personally.)

The Difference Between the Stock Market and the Economy:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of sixty-six.  Sunrise is 6:26 AM and sunset 7:27 PM, for 13h 00m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1917, the United States Congress approves a declaration of war against Germany.

Recommended for reading in full:

David Dayen writes Nothing Trump Said Was True:

“We have compiled the accompanying statement of financial condition of Donald J. Trump,” reads part of a two-page disclaimer from the accounting firm Mazars USA. “We have not audited or reviewed the accompanying financial statement and, accordingly, do not express an opinion or provide any assurance about whether the financial statement is in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.”

This notice, routinely attached to financial statements that Trump used to secure loans and insurance before he became president, amounted to a dry warning that nothing the businessman said was necessarily true.

As detailed in The Washington Post, Trump’s statements of financial condition for the years 2002, 2004, 2011, 2012, and 2013 contained numerous exaggerations and falsehoods. Trump claimed that his golf course in California had 55 lots ready to sell; it had 31. He said his Virginia vineyard sat on 2,000 acres; it sat on about 1,200. He added 10 stories to Trump Tower in New York. He might as well have added an aside about “my wife … Morgan Fairchild.”

Susan B. Glasser asks Is America Becoming Trump’s Banana Republic?:

“You have to look at everything through the prism of his narcissism,” [George] Conway told me. “This is all about him exercising his authority and power to be at the center of attention, and, for whatever reason, he’s decided he’s going to get the most juice out of exercising this decree on this day in this way. That’s the way he makes himself important and special; there’s an arbitrariness to it.” Isn’t that pretty much the definition of a “banana republic”? I asked.

“Yes,” Conway responded. “It would make it a banana republic.” But he went on to offer an important caveat to the remarks he made at Georgetown. “If it were not for the inherent checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution,” Conway said, “we would have a banana republic. But that also makes him an inherently weak President, because the office requires you to have the power to persuade. Ultimately, you become a powerful President only if you are able to persuade others to go along with you. His narcissism means he has to retreat to the people who worship him. He cannot reach out and persuade, like every other President tries to do. His narcissism causes him to be a weak President, and the checks and balances mean he is a weak President. And that’s why we don’t have a banana republic.”

 Giant multicolored squirrels from India:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of fifty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:28 AM and sunset 7:26 PM, for 12h 57m 21s of daytime.  The moon is new with almost none of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1860, a Wisconsin congressman is challenged to a duel:

John F. Potter, a Wisconsin representative in Congress, was challenged to a duel by Virgina representative Roger Pryor. Potter, a Northern Republican, had become a target of Southerners during heated debates over slavery. After one exchange, Pryor challenged Potter to a duel and Potter, as the one challenged, specified that bowie knives be used at a distance of four feet. Pryor refused and Potter became famous in the anti-slavery movement. Two years later, when Republicans convened in Chicago, Potter was given a seven foot blade as a tribute; the knife hung with pride during all the sessions of the convention.  Before his death, Potter remembered the duel and proclaimed, “I felt it was a national matter – not any private quarrel – and I was willing to make sacrifices.”

Recommended for reading in full:

Craig Silverman writes Old, Online, And Fed On Lies: How An Aging Population Will Reshape The Internet (“Older people play an outsized role in civic life. They also are more likely to be online targets for misinformation and hyperpartisan rhetoric”):

Although many older Americans have, like the rest of us, embraced the tools and playthings of the technology industry, a growing body of research shows they have disproportionately fallen prey to the dangers of internet misinformation and risk being further polarized by their online habits. While that matters much to them, it’s also a massive challenge for society given the outsize role older generations play in civic life, and demographic changes that are increasing their power and influence.

People 65 and older will soon make up the largest single age group in the United States, and will remain that way for decades to come, according to the US Census. This massive demographic shift is occurring when this age group is moving online and onto Facebook in droves, deeply struggling with digital literacy, and being targeted by a wide range of online bad actors who try to feed them fake news, infect their devices with malware, and steal their money in scams. Yet older people are largely being left out of what has become something of a golden age for digital literacy efforts.

Since the 2016 election, funding for digital literacy programs has skyrocketed. Apple just announced a major donation to the News Literacy Project and two related initiatives, and Facebook partners with similar organizations. But they primarily focus on younger demographics, even as the next presidential election grows closer.

(Older Americans needn’t succumb to the depredations of Trump’s lies and manipulations, and many don’t – they are active in opposition. And yet, some are now lost.  Outreach to those now enmired in bias & error will produce civic gains far beyond the next election. )

Using Hollywood Special Effects to Save Lives: