Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 27. Sunrise is 7:10 AM and sunset 5:06 PM for 9h 55m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1930, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union orders that a million prosperous peasant families be driven off their farms.
Jill Colvin reports Trump dangles prospect of pardons for Jan. 6 defendants:
CONROE, Texas (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is dangling the prospect of pardons for supporters who participated in the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol if he returns to the White House.
“If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly,” Trump said Saturday night during a rally in Conroe, Texas. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
The offer represents an attempt by Trump to further minimize the most significant attack on the seat of government since the War of 1812. Participants smashed through windows, assaulted police officers and sent lawmakers and congressional staff fleeing for their lives while trying to halt the peaceful transition of power and the certification of rival Joe Biden’s victory.
More than 700 people have been arrested and charged with federal crimes in connection with the riot, marking the largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history. The tally includes more than 150 people charged with assaulting police officers, more than 50 charged with conspiracy, and charges of seditious conspiracy against the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, and 10 other members or associates.
In local politics, in places like Whitewater, what Trump says isn’t supposed to be used against his own supporters, lest one hurt their feelings. These Trumpists want free speech for themselves, but squeal if it’s mentioned that their movement is one of an autocratic, nativist horde. And so, and so, they insist that they can say what they want (and private publishers must carry their opinions) but others cannot say what the Trumpists do not want others to say (and government must restrict criticism of Trumpism).
They decry a so-called cancel culture that is, in fact, simply the right of private publishers to use private publications as is publishers’ right as owners. They advance instead a genuine cancel culture of government censorship of books and posts that correctly describe the lies and abuses of Trumpism.
Where does this lead?
It leads to a world in which Trumpists can commit no crimes (as they will pardon themselves even of assaults against the constitutional order) and others will shy from mentioning as much.
So much is made in these small towns about officials’ public service, but some of those who have enjoyed the public-service limelight for years will quickly shrink into the shadows when the Trumpists walk into a room.
Trump and his followers know this, and they delight and batten on the diffidence of others. See Who Rampaged Better?
See also The Dishonesty of Whitewater’s Local Politics (“Successful candidates for office in Whitewater take an oath to defend the constitution and laws of the United States. Some who have taken this oath and now hold office, and some who seek to hold office and would be required to take the oath, have and do support the forces of insurrection. For this ilk, they lied from the moment they recited the oath, or they will smilingly lie if they should one day take this oath”).
How This Village Makes 50,000 Incense Sticks A Day For Lunar New Year: