Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will see cloudy skies, an even chance of flurries, and a high of fourteen. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:28 PM, for 9h 03m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred thirteenth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière give the first paid public screening of a film: “[t]his history-making presentation featured 10 short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory).”

Recommended for reading in full —

Michael Morell and Mike Rogers write Russia never stopped its cyberattacks on the United States:

Every first-year international-relations student learns about the importance of deterrence: It prevented a Soviet invasion of Western Europe during the height of the Cold War. It prevented North Korea from invading South Korea in the same time frame. Today, it keeps Iran from starting a hot war in the Middle East or other nations from initiating cyberattacks against our infrastructure.

And yet, the United States has failed to establish deterrence in the aftermath of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. We know we failed because Russia continues to aggressively employ the most significant aspect of its 2016 tool kit: the use of social media as a platform to disseminate propaganda designed to weaken our nation.

There is a perception among the media and general public that Russia ended its social-media operations following last year’s election and that we need worry only about future elections. But that perception is wrong. Russia’s information operations in the United States continued after the election and they continue to this day.

This should alarm everyone — Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. Foreign governments, overtly or covertly, should not be allowed to play with our democracy.

Russia’s information operations tactics since the election are more numerous than can be listed here. But to get a sense of the breadth of Russian activity, consider the messaging spread by Kremlin-oriented accounts on Twitter, which cybersecurity and disinformation experts have tracked as part of the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy.

In a single week this month, Moscow used these accounts to discredit the FBI after it was revealed that an agent had been demoted for sending anti-Donald Trump texts; to attack ABC News for an erroneous report involving President Trump and Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser; to critique the Obama administration for allegedly “green lighting” the communication between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; and to warn about violence by immigrants after a jury acquitted an undocumented Mexican accused of murdering a San Francisco woman….

(This should alarm everyone, but it does not alarm Trump: he benefits from Putin’s support. Putin is an organ grinder to Trump’s dancing monkey; the organ grinder variously plays a tune, offers a piece of fruit, or tugs on the tiny primate’s leash.)

Asawin Suebsaeng and Sam Stein contend The #NeverTrump Movement Has Been Neutered (“Conservative opposition to Trump is splintered and more than a bit pessimistic about what comes next”):

President Donald Trump is ending his first year in office in a worse political position than when he entered.

Republicans have lost statehouse seats, been trounced in the two marquee gubernatorial elections, and squandered their Alabama Senate stronghold. Trump himself has seen his popularity drop, including among conservatives and even watchers of Fox News, a Trumpian media bullhorn if there ever was one.

And yet, even at this particular nadir, the conservative intellectual forces rallying against the president remain dispirited and divided. There is dispute within the ranks, not just over how best to make the case against Trump but whether there is a coherent case at all. Looking forward, they don’t see salvation. It is an article of faith among the ranks that Trump will be challenged by a Republican in the 2020 presidential election….

By contrast, conservative Conor Friedersdorf contends ‘Never Trump’ Will Be the Only Faction Still Standing When He’s Gone (“When the Republican Party’s current coalition falls apart, those who stood up to bigotry will be the only ones with the credibility to rebuild”):

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be clear and cold, with a high of nine. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:28 PM, for 9h 03m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 63.1% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred twelfth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1968, Apollo 8 splashes down at night in the Pacific after becoming “the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Earth’s Moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth. The three-astronaut crew — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — became the first humans to: travel beyond low Earth orbit; see Earth as a whole planet; enter the gravity well of another celestial body (Earth’s moon); orbit another celestial body (Earth’s moon); directly see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes; witness an Earthrise; escape the gravity of another celestial body (Earth’s moon); and re-enter the gravitational well of Earth.”

Recommended for reading in full —

Chris Hamby reports FBI Software For Analyzing Fingerprints Contains Russian-Made Code, Whistleblowers Say (“In a secret deal, a French company purchased code from a Kremlin-connected firm, incorporated it into its own software, and hid its existence from the FBI, according to documents and two whistleblowers. The allegations raise concerns that Russian hackers could compromise law enforcement computer systems”):

The fingerprint-analysis software used by the FBI and more than 18,000 other US law enforcement agencies contains code created by a Russian firm with close ties to the Kremlin, according to documents and two whistleblowers. The allegations raise concerns that Russian hackers could gain backdoor access to sensitive biometric information on millions of Americans, or even compromise wider national security and law enforcement computer systems.

The Russian code was inserted into the fingerprint-analysis software by a French company, said the two whistleblowers, who are former employees of that company. The firm — then a subsidiary of the massive Paris-based conglomerate Safran — deliberately concealed from the FBI the fact that it had purchased the Russian code in a secret deal, they said.

In recent years, Russian hackers have gained access to everything from the Democratic National Committee’s email servers to the systems of nuclear power companies to the unclassified computers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to US authorities.

This September, the Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal agencies to stop using products made by the Moscow-based company Kaspersky Lab, including its popular antivirus software, and media outlets reportedthat Russian hackers had exploited it to steal sensitive information on US intelligence programs. The department later clarified that the order didn’t apply to “Kaspersky code embedded in the products of other companies.” The company’s founder, Eugene V. Kaspersky, has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the hack….

Maggie Astor reports Mike Huckabee Says Trump Is Like Churchill. Historians Disagree:

“Sure. Churchill served his country 55 years in parliament, 31 years as a minister and 9 as pm,” Kristian Tonning Riise, a member of Norway’s Parliament, wrote in a tweet liked more than 19,000 times. “He was present in 15 battles and received 14 medals of bravery. He was one of history’s most gifted orators and won the Nobel Literature Prize for his writing. Totally same thing.”

(Trump’s defenders will declare anything – however absurd – about him, knowing that ignorant supporters will repeat these claims, and knowledgeable opponents will be left stunned. Indeed, Roy Moore’s supporters heard that Moore was like St. Joseph, so nutty comparisons between Trump and Churchill should not surprise. They’ll say anything.)

Marina Koren writes of A Triumphant Year for SpaceX (“The company’s record-breaking 2017 and what it means for the science and business of rocketry”):

The year 2017 has turned out to be a good one for rocket science in the United States.

American companies made 29 successful rocket launches into orbit, the highest figure since 1999, which saw 31 launches, according to a comprehensive database maintained by Gunter Krebs, a spaceflight historian in Germany. The final launch of the year, by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a cache of commercial communications satellites, took place Friday night at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, is responsible for most of this year’s launches. After a brief hiatus following an explosion in September 2016 that destroyed a Falcon 9 and its $200 million commercial payload, SpaceXreturned to the launchpad in mid-January. At the time, the success of the launch was imperative; SpaceX had lost another rocket in June 2015, about two minutes after takeoff, and its rocket-fueling process was receiving intense scrutiny by a nasa safety advisory group. nasa was entering its fifth year of using SpaceX rockets for resupply missions to the International Space Station, and future deals were on the line….

Last Friday, SpaceX launched its 18th and final mission of 2017, sending a Falcon 9 rocket out of Vandenberg Air Force Base and into the California sky. The white tail of the rocket was an unusual sight, leaving many in Southern California who did not know a rocket launch was occurring confused, with some even speculating it was a UFO. Now, a spectacular 40-second time-lapse of the Falcon 9 has been posted by photographer Jesse Watson.

Watson lives in Yuma, Arizona, and according to PetaPixel had been following SpaceX launches for some time. Though this latest launch was held at Vandenberg Air Force Base, 400 miles away, he says it was “perfectly viewable” from where he lives in Yuma.

He had never shot a rocket before, but used The Photographer’s Ephemeris, a map-centric sun and moon calculator, as well as Google Maps to figure out where to set up his shots. Because he was working on estimated knowledge, Watson used four cameras and five lenses at four different locations, with three of the cameras rolling time-lapse and one rolling telephoto video….

Nicholas Casey, Ben C. Solomon, and Taige Jensen report on The Last Man to Speak His Language:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be chilly, with a high of nine degrees under sunny skies. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset sunset 4:27 PM, for 9h 02m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 52.1% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred eleventh day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1776, the Gen. Washington and the Continental Army are victorious at the Battle of Trenton.

Recommended for reading in full —

The Salt Lake City Tribune editorial board explains Why Orrin Hatch is Utahn of the Year:

The selection of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch as the 2017 Utahn of the Year has little to do with the fact that, after 42 years, he is the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history, that he has been a senator from Utah longer than three-fifths of the state’s population has been alive.

It has everything to do with recognizing:

Hatch’s part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.

It would be good for Utah if Hatch, having finally caught the Great White Whale of tax reform, were to call it a career. If he doesn’t, the voters should end it for him.

Common is the repetition of the catchphrase that Hatch successfully used to push aside three-term Sen. Frank Moss in this first election in, egad, 1976.

“What do you call a senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.”

Less well known is a bit of advice Hatch gave to Capitol Hill interns in 1983.

“You should not fall in love with D.C.” he admonished them. “Elected politicians shouldn’t stay here too long.”

If only he had listened to his own advice.

(See also Has Trump Persuaded Orrin Hatch to Block Mitt Romney’s Senate Bid?)

Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Jaffe report Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options:

The first email arrived in the inbox of CounterPunch, a left-leaning American news and opinion website, at 3:26 a.m. — the middle of the day in Moscow.

“Hello, my name is Alice Donovan and I’m a beginner freelance journalist,” read the Feb.?26, 2016, message.

The FBI was tracking Donovan as part of a months-long counterintelligence operation code-named “NorthernNight.” Internal bureau reports described her as a pseudonymous foot soldier in an army of Kremlin-led trolls seeking to undermine America’s democratic institutions.

Her first articles as a freelancer for CounterPunch and at least 10 other online publications weren’t especially political. As the 2016 presidential election heated up, Donovan’s message shifted. Increasingly, she seemed to be doing the Kremlin’s bidding by stoking discontent toward Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and touting WikiLeaks, which U.S. officials say was a tool of Russia’s broad influence operation to affect the presidential race.

“There’s no denying the emails that Julian Assange has picked up from inside the Democratic Party are real,” she wrote in August 2016 for a website called We Are Change. “The emails have exposed Hillary Clinton in a major way — and almost no one is reporting on it.”

The events surrounding the FBI’s NorthernNight investigation follow a pattern that repeated for years as the Russian threat was building: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies saw some warning signs of Russian meddling in Europe and later in the United States but never fully grasped the breadth of the Kremlin’s ambitions. Top U.S. policymakers didn’t appreciate the dangers, then scrambled to draw up options to fight back. In the end, big plans died of internal disagreement, a fear of making matters worse or a misguided belief in the resilience of American society and its democratic institutions.

(There never was an Alice Donovan, but there were those duped to believe so. While America slept…)

Henry Meyer reports Putin Tries to Lure $1 Trillion Home as Sanctions Fear Grows:

President Vladimir Putin is using the threat of additional U.S. sanctions to encourage wealthy Russians to repatriate some of their overseas assets, which exceed $1 trillion by one estimate.

Putin told lawmakers late Monday that a new capital amnesty program was needed “given the foreign restrictions, which instead of lessening are now worsening,” according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website. This “should stimulate the return of capital to Russia,” the president said, without specifying how long the measure will last.

“People should feel comfortable and secure and it shouldn’t involve additional expenses,” Putin said Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting where he ordered officials to finalize the plan.

Russia rolled out a similar amnesty program during the worst of the conflict in Ukraine, which coincided with a plunge in oil prices that triggered the country’s longest recession of the Putin era. That 18-month initiative, the results of which haven’t been disclosed, “didn’t work as well as we’d hoped,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. Unlike that plan, this one waves Russia’s 13 percent tax on personal income, according to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman….

(Sanctions aren’t nearly stringent enough against a nation that seized Crimea, forments war in eastern Ukraine, interfered in America democracy, and commits human rights violations at home and abroad.)

Emily Steel reports At Vice, Cutting-EdgeMedia and Allegations of Old-School Sexual Harassment:

One woman said she was riding a Ferris wheel at Coney Island after a company event when a co-worker suddenly took her hand and put it on his crotch. Another said she felt pressured into a sexual relationship with an executive and was fired after she rejected him.

A third said that a co-worker grabbed her face and tried to kiss her, and she used her umbrella to fend him off.

These women did not work among older men at a hidebound company. They worked at Vice, an insurgent force in news and entertainment known for edgy content that aims for millennial audiences on HBO and its own TV network.

But as Vice Media has built itself from a fringe Canadian magazine into a nearly $6 billion global media company, its boundary-pushing culture created a workplace that was degrading and uncomfortable for women, current and former employees say.

An investigation by The New York Times has found four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees, including its current president.In addition, more than two dozen other women, most in their 20s and early 30s, said they had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company — unwanted kisses, groping, lewd remarks and propositions for sex.

The settlements and the many episodes of harassment the women described depict a top-down ethos of male entitlement at Vice, where women said they felt like just another party favor at an organization where partying often was an extension of the job.

(For Whitewater and elsewhere – there’s hard work everywhere to be done. Those who wish to defend an institution or organization at any cost – indeed rather than the redress of real injuries to individuals – will sometimes defend their efforts  as otherwise progressive, enlightened, or cutting-edge. There is no noble way to defend an ignoble act; there is no worthy distraction from obstruction of justice. These institutional and organizational efforts have the character of a taunt: Will you defend the truth if we build monuments to pretty lies? Sometimes, there is a resolute reply: Yes, so assertively and completely as one can.)

There are Long-Term Health Benefits Of Running A Marathon:

Good morning.

Christmas Eve in Whitewater will be cloudy with snow showers and a high of twenty-three. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 4:26 PM, for 9h 02m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred tenth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

After years of war, on this day in 1814 the United States and Britain sign the Treaty of Ghent. The treaty formalized U.S. possession of land which included present-day Wisconsin.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Luke Harding and Stephanie Kirchgaessner report Ex-Trump adviser Carter Page accused academics who twice failed his PhD of bias:

Carter Page, Donald Trump’s former foreign policy adviser, accused his British examiners of “anti-Russian bias” after they took the highly unusual step of failing his “verbose” and “vague” PhD thesis, not once but twice….

Page first submitted his thesis on central Asia’s transition from communism to capitalism in 2008. Two respected academics, Professor Gregory Andrusz, and Dr Peter Duncan, were asked to read his thesis and to examine him in a face-to-face interview known as a viva.

Andrusz said he had expected it would be “easy” to pass Page, a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas). He said it actually took “days and days” to wade through Page’s work. Page “knew next to nothing” about social science and seemed “unfamiliar with basic concepts like Marxism or state capitalism,” the professor said….

The viva, held at University College, London, went badly. “Page seemed to think that if he talked enough, people would think he was well-informed. In fact it was the reverse,” Andrusz said. He added that Page was “dumbfounded” when the examiners told him he had failed.

Their subsequent report was withering. It said Page’s thesis was “characterised by considerable repetition, verbosity and vagueness of expression”, failed to meet the criteria required for a PhD, and needed “substantial revision”. He was given 18 months to produce another draft.

Page resubmitted in November 2010. Although this essay was a “substantial improvement” it still didn’t merit a PhD and wasn’t publishable in a “learned journal of international repute”, Andrusz noted. When after a four-hour interview, the examiners informed him he had failed again, Page grew “extremely agitated”….

(Just the sort of ignoramus who’d find his way to the Trump campaign.)

John Sipher writes of Russian Active Measures and the 2016 Election Hack:

….Putin’s rage: The scale and brazen nature of the 2016 attack can be attributed in part to the personality of Vladimir Putin. For Putin, years of resentment against the U.S. for perceived disrespect and betrayal, culminating in 2012 street riots in Moscow and the publication of the Panama papers, created a convenient target in Hillary Clinton and the Washington foreign policy establishment. Putin’s animus toward Clinton increased his tolerance for risk, and willingness to show his hand.

U.S. wasn’t prepared: By 2016, the years of focus on terrorism and the Middle East had fooled many into assuming that the Russians were no longer a threat. Greater familiarity with the Russian threat led to a better defense during the Cold War. Indeed, proximity to an aggressive Russia helped our European allies be better prepared to counter Russian propaganda and fake stories in 2015 and 2016. They Russians tried similar methods in France, Germany and elsewhere but did not have the same level of success.

Collusion? According to Russian doctrine, a successful active measures campaign relies on enlisting spies and “agents-of-influence” to help focus the attack. The Russians certainly called on all available resources to insure success, and like any good intelligence service, continued to seek new spies. Were the Russians aided by collaborators inside or around the Trump campaign, or inside our social media companies? We don’t know. If not, it would be a rare covert campaign that did not leverage human sources.

We do know, however, that countering similar attacks in the future will be made more difficult by the failure to hold Russia to account, and by Trump administration attacks on the media and national security institutions. Weakening our defenses does not seem a wise course of action….

(A ‘rare [Russian] covert campaign that did not leverage human sources’: Success of Putin’s efforts depended on American dupes, fellow travelers, and fifth columnists.)

David Frum observes Republicans Exact Their Revenge Through a Tax Bill (“Instead of eliminating favoritism, the GOP’s reforms load the costs of the state upon disfavored persons, groups, and regions”):

….If the idea behind tax reform is to eliminate favoritism from the tax code, then the tax law of 2017 is anti-reform: an aggressive loading of the costs of the state upon disfavored persons, groups, and regions. It leaves behind an unstable legacy, both economic and political. Economically, the system invites gaming. Politically, it accelerates the exodus of college-educated professionals out of the Republican Party. It will tint the blue states ever bluer, up and down the income scale.

States like California and New York desperately need a competitive Republican Party—especially at the state level—to challenge the lazy and often corrupt practices of local Democratic machines. This new tax law will have the opposite effect, wrecking whatever little remains of GOP strength in the states that motor American innovation and growth. It threatens to push New Jersey, Colorado, and Virginia into single-party blue rule as well, by painfully demonstrating that the party of Trump is not only obnoxious to their values but implacably hostile to their welfare….

McKay Coppins asks Has Trump Persuaded Orrin Hatch to Block Mitt Romney’s Senate Bid? (“The longtime Utah senator had promised this term would be his last, and told friends he planned on retiring. But after the president’s intervention, he may be changing his mind”):

After months of quietly laying the groundwork for his own retirement, the 83-year-old Utah senator has signaled to Republican allies in recent weeks that he’s having second thoughts about leaving office when his term ends next year. Interviews with 10 people familiar with the situation—some of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly—suggest that President Trump’s efforts to convince Hatch to seek reelection have influenced the senator’s thinking….

“Many of the senator’s recent positions and statements have led Utahns to speculate if he was falling into the trap that so many politicians do,” [Boyd] Matheson said, “becoming more interested in solving their own political problems than solving the American people’s problems.” As an example, he contrasted Hatch’s decision to defend Trump’s endorsement of Roy Moore with Romney’s insistence that electing a man credibly accused of sexually abusing teenage girls “would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation.” Hatch’s response, Matheson said, “has deepened this fearful question of, ‘Will he really say anything to hold on to power?’ And Utahns are increasingly exhausted by that”….

It’s The Harvard of Santa Schools:

What goes into becoming Saint Nick? It takes more than just a red suit and white beard to don the title of Santa Claus. Every year, those that want to perfect the art of being Santa travel to Midland, Michigan, to attend the world’s oldest and longest running Santa school. The Charles W. Howard Santa School has graduated thousands of Kris Kringles over its 80 years, teaching everything from beard grooming to caroling to child psychology.

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of twenty-six. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 4:25 PM, for 9h 01m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 23.2% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred ninth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1948, former Imperial Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo is hanged for war crimes (“Crimes committed by Imperial Japan were responsible for the deaths of millions, some estimate between 3,000,000^[102] and 14,000,000^[103] civilians and prisoners of war through massacre, human experimentation, starvation, and forced labor that was either directly perpetrated or condoned by the Japanese military and government with a significant portion of them occurring during Tojo’s rule of the military.^{[104][105][106][107][108]} One source attributes 5,000,000 civilian deaths to Tojo’s rule of the military.”)

On this day in 1865, the 13th Wisconsin Infantry returns home: “The 13th Wisconsin Infantry returned home to Madison to be discharged. During its service it had moved through Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee. The regiment lost 193 men during service. Five enlisted men were killed and 188 enlisted men died from disease.”

Recommended for reading in full —

Amanda Erickson reports Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands just got caught lying about the Dutch:

A Dutch journalist just asked new U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra why he said there are “no go” areas in the Netherlands, where radical Muslims are setting cars and politicians on fire.

Hoekstra denied it, and called the claim “fake news.”

The reporter then showed Hoekstra a video clip of himself at a congressional hearing in 2015 saying: “The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned.”

“And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands,” he added in the clip.

Then things got extremely weird.

When the reporter pressed, Hoekstra denied using the term “fake news,” which he’d uttered moments before.

“I didn’t call that fake news,” he said. “I didn’t use the words today. I don’t think I did.”

Hoekstra was being interviewed by reporter Wouter Zwart for current affairs program Nieuwsuur. The interview is not playing well in the Netherlands. (One sample headline: “The new Trump Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, lies about his own lies.”)

(Lies about his own lies…that’s Trump and his vile horde.)

Michael Birnbaum reports Russian submarines are prowling around vital undersea cables. It’s making NATO nervous:

BRUSSELS — Russian submarines have dramatically stepped up activity around undersea data cables in the North Atlantic, part of a more aggressive naval posture that has driven NATO to revive a Cold War-era command, according to senior military officials.

The apparent Russian focus on the cables, which provide Internet and other communications connections to North America and Europe, could give the Kremlin the power to sever or tap into vital data lines, the officials said. Russian submarine activity has increased to levels unseen since the Cold War, they said, sparking hunts in recent months for the elusive watercraft.

“We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don’t believe we have ever seen,” said U.S. Navy Admiral Andrew Lennon, the commander of NATO’s submarine forces. “Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations’ undersea infrastructure.”

NATO has responded with plans to reestablish a command post, shuttered after the Cold War, to help secure the North Atlantic. NATO allies are also rushing to boost anti-submarine warfare capabilities and to develop advanced submarine-detecting planes….

(Trump’s friends, the Russians…)

Ana Swanson reports Trump Promised to Protect Steel. Layoffs Are Coming Instead:

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. — At this sprawling steel mill on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the workers have one number in mind. Not how many tons of steel roll off the line, or how many hours they work, but where they fall on the plant’s seniority list.

In September, ArcelorMittal, which owns the mill, announced that it would lay off 150 of the plant’s 207 workers next year. While the cuts will start with the most junior employees, they will go so deep that even workers with decades of experience will be cast out.

“I told my son, ‘Christmas is going to be kind of scarce, because Mommy’s going to lose her job soon,’” said Kimberly Allen, a steelworker and single parent who has worked at the plant for more than 22 years. On the seniority list, she’s 72nd.

The layoffs have stunned these steelworkers who, just a year ago, greeted President Trump’s election as a new dawn for their industry. Mr. Trump pledged to build roads and bridges, strengthen “Buy America” provisions, protect factories from unfair imports and revive industry, especially steel.

But after a year in office, Mr. Trump has not enacted these policies. And when it comes to steel, his failure to follow through on a promise has had unintended consequences….

(Trump’s entire career is one of false and broken promises.)

Jennifer Rubin observes Once again, Ivanka Trump shows off her cluelessness:

She’s a walking advertisement for the danger of nepotism, an exemplar of class privilege and a perfect representative for Republican know-nothingism. She was supposed to be the brains of the family and the moral ballast; instead, she’s a self-righteous enabler.

We’re speaking of Ivanka Trump, as you might have divined. She was out talking nonsense again on Thursday: “I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of traveling in April when people realize the effect that this has … The vast majority will be [doing their taxes] on a single postcard.” Thunk. There’s no postcard. That was a prop. And the filing for the first year under the new tax code will be in 2019….

Trump leads the charmed life of one who will be able to take advantage of the reduction in the top marginal rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. She’ll have the best lawyers and accountants to make certain her income is run through a pass-through, thereby reducing the amount counted as income by 20 percent. If she has been a dutiful Trump daughter, her taxes might look a lot like her father’s — which means she and real-estate mogul husband Jared Kushner can afford even more lavish clothes, bigger homes and ostentatious jewelry. (Remember, the president’s claims notwithstanding, he’s likely to make a mint: “It is clear that President Donald Trump is set to save millions if he signs the Republican tax plan, but exactly how much? Forbes crunched the numbers: It looks like up to $11 million a year from a single rule change.”) While Republicans were pleading poverty when it comes to funding government programs in the wake of the $1.5 trillion revenue-losing tax bill, Ivanka Trump and Kushner can breathe easy, as can their children. (“Under previous provisions, married couples could leave $11 million to their heirs before handing over about 40% of their remaining assets to the government. The new rule doubles that limit to $22 million, meaning Trump’s children will likely get an additional $4.4 million tax break on their inheritance”)….

These Birds Make Amazing Black Clouds In The Sky:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset is 4:24 PM, for 9h 01m 47s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 16% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred eighth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, German commander Generalleutnant (Lt. Gen.) Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz demands American surrender at Bastogne. American Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe made a defiant reply:

When Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st, was told of the Nazi demand to surrender, in frustration he responded, “Nuts!” After turning to other pressing issues, his staff reminded him that they should reply to the German demand. One officer, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard, noted that McAuliffe’s initial reply would be “tough to beat.” Thus McAuliffe wrote on the paper, which was typed up and delivered to the Germans, the line he made famous and a morale booster to his troops: “NUTS!”^[99] That reply had to be explained, both to the Germans and to non-American Allies.^[g]

Recommended for reading in full —

Raphael Satter, Jeff Donn, and Nataliya  Vasilyeva report Russian hackers targeted more than 200 journalists globally:

The Associated Press found that [Russian journalist Pavel] Lobkov was targeted by the hacking group known as Fancy Bear in March 2015, nine months before his messages were leaked. He was one of at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers targeted by the group as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago.

The AP identified journalists as the third-largest group on a hacking hit list obtained from cybersecurity firm Secureworks, after diplomatic personnel and U.S. Democrats. About 50 of the journalists worked at The New York Times. Another 50 were either foreign correspondents based in Moscow or Russian reporters like Lobkov who worked for independent news outlets. Others were prominent media figures in Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics or Washington.

The list of journalists provides new evidence for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Fancy Bear acted on behalf of the Russian government when it intervened in the U.S. presidential election. Spy agencies say the hackers were working to help Republican Donald Trump. The Russian government has denied interfering in the American election.

Previous AP reporting has shown how Fancy Bear — which Secureworks nicknamed Iron Twilight — used phishing emails to try to compromise Russian opposition leaders, Ukrainian politicians and U.S. intelligence figures, along with Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and more than 130 other Democrats….

Chris Strohm, Steven T. Dennis , and Shannon Pettypiece report Mueller’s Silence Cuts Through Noise of Trump Russia Inquiries:

Through all the controversy, threats and noise surrounding the Trump-Russia investigation, one person has been conspicuously silent: Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The former FBI director hasn’t uttered a single word in public since he was appointed in May to lead the probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election despite increasingly combative attacks by Republicans and their allies on the FBI, the Justice Department and the integrity of his probe.

It’s an intentional strategy meant to convey the investigation’s credibility and seriousness in an age of 24-hour noise, amplified by cable news shows and Twitter, according to current and former U.S. officials who know Mueller personally or who have followed his work.

Instead of press conferences, Mueller has spoken loudly through a series of indictments and plea deals related to various Trump associates….

(Disciplined, deliberate, methodical.)

Sam Tanenhaus reports On the Front Lines of the GOP’s Civil War (“In 2016, a group of Republicans broke ranks with their party to try to stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency. Now they’re rallying once more to keep him from destroying the country. Sam Tanenhaus reports on the Never Trumpers”):

….Well, the decades kept coming, but so did resistance, in ever-changing forms. Today, it is the Never Trumpers who are holding out against “forced collectivization”—imposed by the leaders of their own party—and feel locked in an epochal struggle, with a great deal riding on the outcome. To them Trumpism is more than a freakish blight on the republic. It is a moral test. “We’ve seen a moment before when holders of property gambled that their best hope of retaining their property was to disenfranchise fellow citizens,” [David] Frum told me. “We’ve seen before when important parts of society put their faith in authoritarianism. Because Americans have emerged safely at the other end of some pretty scary pasts, they think no one has to do anything—‘It’ll just happen automatically.’ ”

This is not the sort of thing Frum said in his former life, as a wunderkind of the American Right. But for him, as for many of the guests at his party, the rise of Trump changed the old refrain “It can happen here” into something more dire and pressing: “It’s happening now and must be stopped.” One guest, the affable conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, has called Trump a “European-style blood-and-soil nationalist.” Another, the historian Ronald Radosh, has written that when he met Steve Bannon in 2013, at the so-called Breitbart Embassy in D. C., Trump’s future Rasputin told him, “I’m a Leninist. . . . I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment.” That establishment includes the Never Trumpers, and it’s a sign of how far things have come that these insiders have now become outlaws….

(The war for the GOP, and conservatism has been lost; Trump’s won that fight. The greater conflict – over the direction of America, herself, is a conflict Trump will lose. Those Republicans who still oppose him no longer truly have a party, but their role is still important: as part of a large, formidable, continental  opposition and resistance.)

Michael Gerson writes of Trump’s influence in Trump’s successes are thanks to Republicans. His failures are thanks to Trump:

Vice President Pence’s obsequiousness at a recent Cabinet meeting — “Thank you for seeing, through the course of this year, an agenda that is truly restoring this country…” and on, and on — might be appropriate at a Communist Party Central Committee meeting or at a despot’s birthday party. But it is not the language of any self-respecting republic.

The divestment of self-respect is a qualification for employment in the Trump administration. Praising the Dear Leader in a Pence-like fashion seems to be what the Dear Leader requires — not in the way we might need dessert after dinner, but in the way an addict needs drugs. President Trump divides the world into two categories: flunkies and enemies. Pence is the cringing, fawning high priest of flunkiness. It is hard to know whether to laugh or puke (and difficult to do both at the same time).

It is precisely the claim of miracles by mediocrities that makes it hard for some of us to judge Trump’s first-year record with any objectivity. Compared with his claims of world-historic change, Trump has accomplished little. But how does his record compare with more realistic expectations?

….It is important to count our blessings, even when they are meager. But for Republicans and conservatives, it is also important to count the costs — the tonnage on the other side of the balance….

(Gerson holds out hope for a Republican party and conservatism apart from Trump. He’s unrealistic in that hope, but not in his critique of Trump: “count the costs — the tonnage on the other side of the balance….”)

A Glacier Disappears in Alaska:

In Indonesia, more than 75% of people live within 100 kilometers of a volcano. It’s the most densely populated volcanic region in the world. As a result, Indonesians have developed a spiritual and economic symbiosis with the volatile natural phenomena. Amongst Fire, a short film from Toronto-based cinematographer Justin Pelletier, is a breathtaking portrait of life at this unique intersection of destruction and vitality.

“The production was an adventure in itself, with countless close calls and near misses,” Pelletier told The Atlantic. “One memory that really sticks out was watching locals evacuate the villages surrounding Mount Agung [which erupted in November 2017]. That was an extremely tense time for everyone. But we were consistently greeted with open arms and smiles, even during the insane event of an impending volcanic eruption.”

Good morning.

Winter begins in Whitewater under cloudy skies with a high of thirty-eight, and an even chance of afternoon snow showers. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:24 PM, for 9h 01m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred seventh day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 7 AM.

On this day in 1898, Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie discover radium. On this day in 1862, the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry sets out for Vicksburg: “The 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry participated in Grierson’s Raid on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in Tennessee. This was the first engagement in a movement by Union Col. Benjamin Grierson. It led 3,500 men on a 450-mile ride from Tennessee through Mississippi, arriving in Vicksburg on January 5, 1863.”

Recommended for reading in full —

Murray Waas reports White House Counsel Knew in January Flynn Probably Violated the Law:

The White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, according to three people with direct knowledge of the confidential government documents.

The records reflected concerns that McGahn, the White House counsel, had that Michael Flynn, then the president’s national security advisor, had possibly violated either one or both laws at the time, according to two of the sources. The disclosure that these records exist and that they are in the possession of the special counsel could bolster any potential obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump.

The records that McGahn turned over to the special counsel, portions of which were read to this reporter, indicate he researched both statutes and warned Trump about Flynn’s possible violations….

John Dean replies to Pam Bondi, the Trump-supporting attorney general of Florida:

Hey, Pam. You don’t have a clue about Watergate, nor does Hannity, who is not the brightest. He’s an entertainer like Trump who don’t know History, or much else. Good at faking it, however. Appropriate league for you to play in Pam. https://t.co/3FZPQ7ZF9t

— John Dean (@JohnWDean) December 17, 2017

Asha Rangappa contends that Mueller’s investigation threatens not only Trump, but Putin:

THREAD. It's worth pointing out that Mueller's investigation is as much a threat to Putin as to Trump. If it uncovers illegal acts on the part of Russians – incl financial crimes, or hacking – there could be some oligarchs who stand to go to jail (or never step foot in US again). https://t.co/RL8uDO8Bs6

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) December 17, 2017

Aaron Blake reports In Cabinet meeting, Pence praises Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes straight:

Back in June, President Trump allowed almost his entire Cabinet to speak, one by one, in praise of him. And praise him they did, with each being more effusive than the last. They called it an “incredible honor” and a “blessing” to serve him. They said they were “humbled” and “privileged” to be part of his team. They talked about how much Americans loved Trump.

At Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Vice President Pence decided he’d just handle praising Trump for the entire team.

Over nearly three minutes, Pence offered plaudit after plaudit after plaudit, praising Trump’s vision, his words, his strategy and his results in light of the passage of tax cuts. By the end, Pence offered 14 separate commendations for Trump in less than three minutes — math that works out to one every 12.5 seconds. And each bit of praise was addressed directly to Trump, who was seated directly across the table.

Here’s the full list:

1. “Thank you for seeing, through the course of this year, an agenda that truly is restoring this country.”

2. “You described it very well, Mr. President.”

3. “You’ve restored American credibility on the world stage.”

4. “You’ve signed more bills rolling back federal red tape than any president in American history.”

5. “You’ve unleashed American energy.”

6. “You’ve spurred an optimism in this country that’s setting records.”

7. “You promised the American people in that campaign a year ago that you would deliver historic tax cuts, and it would be a ‘middle-class miracle.’ And in just a short period of time, that promise will be fulfilled.”

8. “I’m deeply humbled, as your vice president, to be able to be here.”

9. “Because of your leadership, Mr. President, and because of the strong support of the leadership in the Congress of the United States, you’re delivering on that middle-class miracle.”

10. “You’ve actually got the Congress to do, as you said, what they couldn’t do with [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska] for 40 years.”

11. “You got the Congress to do, with tax cuts for working families and American businesses, what they haven’t been able to do for 31 years.”

12. “And you got Congress to do what they couldn’t do for seven years, in repealing the individual mandate in Obamacare.”

13. “Mostly, Mr. President, I’ll end where I began and just tell you, I want to thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you for speaking on behalf of and fighting every day for the forgotten men and women of America.”

14. “Because of your determination, because of your leadership, the forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more. And we are making America great again.”

(Some men would rather crawl than walk.)

Tech Insider explains Plane De-Icing:

Good morning.

Midweek in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-two. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:23 PM, for 9h 01m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board is scheduled to meet today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1803, France formally cedes its Louisiana territory to the United States.

In December 1941, large numbers of Wisconsinites begin to enlist: “After the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Wisconsin citizens volunteered to fight. Roughly 320,000 Wisconsin soldiers served in the armed forces during the WWII, including more than 9,000 women. Wisconsin’s National Guard formed a substantial part of the new Red Arrow Division, helping to maintain the respected reputation of its predecessor from World War I by remaining undefeated in the Pacific theater. The majority of Wisconsin soldiers were draftees who served in units comprised of men from around the country. More than 8,000 soldiers died and another 13,000 were wounded in combat. Fifteen Wisconsin men won the Medal of Honor during WWII.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

David Frum observes – in response to a Charles C.W. Cooke article criticizing Jennifer Rubin – that Conservatism Can’t Survive Donald Trump Intact (“As reflexive support for the president redefines their movement, most conservative commentators have caved to pressure, following along”):

The most revealing thought in Cooke’s essay is his explanation for why he feels it is safe to go with the Trumpian flow: “Conservatism in this country long predated Trump; for now, it is tied up with Trump; soon, it will have survived Trump.”

This is something many conservatives tell themselves, but it’s not even slightly true. Trump is changing conservatism into something different. We can all observe that….

(I’m not a conservative, but Frum’s right. There’s more to say about Cooke’s essay another time, but Frum gets to the heart of conservatives’ problem: they won’t be able to maintain integrity while waiting Trump out.)

Jennifer Rubin writes Here are the latest games from Trump’s shoddy legal team:

The strongest indication of President Trump’s precarious legal situation is his legal team’s propensity to make political, not to mention hysterical, accusations in lieu of legal arguments. One supposes that if Trump’s lawyers had meritorious points, they would make them in a proper legal forum, as Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) suggested with regard to the lawyers’ temper tantrum over thousands of transition team emails acquired by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III from the General Services Administration….

If, of course, Trump’s legal team went to court, it would need a viable legal claim. Legal experts are flummoxed as to what the basis might be for challenging the acquisition of documents relevant to the Russia inquiry. (Fear of gross embarrassment isn’t a legitimate one.) For one thing, Trump would have to attack his own appointees at the GSA for turning over the documents, which cannot by definition be covered by presidential executive privilege because Trump wasn’t yet president. The Post quotes former prosecutor Randall Eliason as saying that the transition emails are “not your personal email. If it ends in .gov, you don’t have any expectation of privacy.” Likewise, Ben Wittes of Lawfare blog tells me, “When you use government devices you do so with the explicit understanding that you have no expectation of privacy. Moreover, if there is a complaint here, it is a complaint about GSA for overbroad production, not against Mueller for seeking materials that are obviously germane to his investigation.”

David Graham ponders The Partisan, Nihilist Case Against Robert Mueller (“Attacks on the special counsel aren’t about misconduct—instead, they’re aimed at discrediting the very idea of professionalism”):

….The opposition to Mueller is partisan, but not in that it pits Republicans against Democrats. Its partisans are loyal first and foremost to President Trump. And in the inexorable logic of fiercely loyal partisans, they can only interpret other people’s actions through the same lens. Hence they have decided that Mueller, despite no real evidence in favor of the proposition and plenty of circumstantial evidence against it, must also be entirely partisan. (The same partisan impulse is at work in support for Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama.)

Gone by the wayside are some of the earlier critiques. Back in May, when Mueller started his work, Trump partisans could still argue with a straight face that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, there was no evidence of collusion, and there would never be any evidence of collusion. Even if it eventually emerges that there was no criminal act involving collusion, it has become impossible to claim that the special counsel’s probe is purely a fishing expedition. The July revelation of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer established that if there was no collusion, it was not for want of trying. Trump and others abandoned the talking point that there was no collusion and adopted a new one: Collusion is totally normal and appropriate! George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn have since both pleaded guilty to lying about their contacts with Russian officials—in the former case, contacts that occurred during the campaign. Carter Page testified to the House about extensive contacts with Russians….

Ruth May reports How Putin’s proxies helped funnel millions into GOP campaigns:

….Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.

An example is Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen and one of the largest donors to GOP political action committees in the 2015-16 election cycle. Blavatnik’s family emigrated to the U.S. in the late ’70s from the U.S.S.R. and he returned to Russia when the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late ’80s….

The International Space Station is An Out of This World Research Lab: