Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of thirty-eight. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset is 4:42 PM, for 9h 18m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.7% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the {tooltip}sixty-fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General issues the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one’s health. On this day in 1887, conservationist Aldo Leopold is born.
Recommended for reading in full —
Julian Borger reports that John McCain passes dossier alleging secret Trump-Russia contacts to FBI: “The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation.”
Jennifer Rubin asks the pertinent question, Could Trump be in Putin’s pocket?: “unless and until Americans are satisfied that their president-elect is truly putting America first and not acting at the behest of a foreign country, every nominee, policy decision and statement will raise questions. Does Trump believe what he says or is he saying what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants him to say? Does Trump want to get along with Russia for his own purposes or for the country’s benefit?”
J. Gerald Hebert, Joseph D. Rich and William Yeomans write that Jeff Sessions says he handled these civil rights cases. He barely touched them: “In the questionnaire he filed recently with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions (R-Ala.) listed four civil rights cases among the 10 most significant that he litigated “personally” as the U.S. attorney for Alabama during the 1980s. Three involved voting rights, while the fourth was a school desegregation case. Following criticism for exaggerating his role, he then claimed that he provided “assistance and guidance” on these cases. We worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which brought those lawsuits; we handled three of the four ourselves. We can state categorically that Sessions had no substantive involvement in any of them. He did what any U.S. attorney would have had to do: He signed his name on the complaint, and we added his name on any motions or briefs. That’s it.”
Frank Bruni describes The Dark magic of Kellyanne Conway: ” But for sheer, jaw-dropping wonder, I doubt that any of it will improve on a typical Conway television interview, which is a circus of euphemisms, a festival of distractions and a testament to the stamina of a willed smile. She looks cheery when attacking, even cheerier when attacked and absolutely radiant when descending into a bog of half-truths and fictions. It’s always sunny on Conway’s side of the street….What she possesses is a showmanship that Trump can’t help appreciating. I know dozens of people who despise her politics but are mesmerized by her performances. She’s the Streep of “Fox & Friends” (of “Morning Joe,” too) and a perfect emblem of these polarized times, when no claim is too laughable or denial too ludicrous if it counters the supposed insidiousness of the other side.”
There’s windy and then there’s windy in Colorado —