Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of fifty-eight. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 6:30 PM, for 11h 33m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 25.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the six hundred ninety-fifth day.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM, the Finance Committee also at 6 PM, (canceled), and there is a scheduled Fire Department board meeting at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1957, the Space Age begins as the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 into a low Earth orbit.
Recommended for reading in full — Trump-voting counties most affected by retaliatory tariffs, American ambassador to Estonia quits over lack of Trump support for small democracy threatened by Russia, Russian spies & hackers rigging Olympics, Wisconsin lawmakers to vote on corporate welfare after the election, and video of a freediver who reached new depths —
Joseph Parilla and Max Bouchet ask (and answer) Which US communities are most affected by Chinese, EU, and NAFTA retaliatory tariffs?:
COUNTIES THAT VOTED FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP HAVE HIGHER RELIANCE ON TARIFF-AFFECTED EXPORTS
Trade policy is inextricably linked with politics, and the retaliatory tariffs seem geographically and industrially targeted to mobilize political angst. A county-level analysis reveals that, while a political diversity of places will be implicated, counties that voted for President Trump are more exposed to the tariffs, as measured by the share of exports in tariff-affected industries (8.1 percent) and the share direct and indirect jobs those exports support (8.1 percent). Comparatively, in counties that voted for Hillary Clinton, 4.2 percent of exports are in tariff-affected industries, which support about 3.2 percent of export jobs.
James D. Melville Jr. writes I stepped down as U.S. ambassador to Estonia. Here’s why:
This spring, I reached the point where I could no longer support President Trump’s policies and rhetoric regarding NATO, our European allies and Russia.
What do I believe? I am extremely uncomfortable with the trade policies the United States is pursuing. I also believe it is a historic mistake to cozy up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is in the United States’ fundamental interests to champion a rules-based world order. After the dark years of World War II, we worked in accordance with our values to pursue, nurture and achieve a peaceful and prosperous world. The great global and transatlantic institutions — NATO, the United Nations and, to an extent that would surprise many of my fellow citizens, even the European Union — are the fruits of policies carried out and resources expended by the United States over decades.
The refusal of the United States to give up on Estonia’s independence through the entire Soviet occupation is the cornerstone of Estonians’ deep appreciation for America. But it is the values of our nation and the leadership and role we have played in protecting the democracies in Europe that give them the confidence to stand up to the genuine threats emanating from their eastern neighbor.
Ellen Nakashima, Michael Birnbaum, and William Booth report U.S. indicts Russian spies in hacking campaign linked to Olympics doping scandal:
The Justice Department on Thursday announced the indictment of seven Russian military spies on cyber hacking charges linked to the leaking of Olympic athletes’ drug-test data in an alleged attempt to undermine international efforts to expose Russian doping.
Four of the officers with Russia’ GRU military intelligence agency also were charged with targeting organizations probing Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons, including the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Three were indicted in July for allegedly conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment further exposes Moscow’s ongoing, widespread campaign to discredit western democracy and international institutions through disinformation and other measures. The aim, officials said, is to muddy or alter perceptions of the truth.
Laurel White reports Lawmakers To Vote After Election On $100M Tax Deal For Kimberly-Clark:
State legislative leaders announced Tuesday they will call lawmakers back to the Capitol in November to take up a proposed $100 million incentives package for consumer products company Kimberly-Clark Corp.
The “extraordinary session” announcement comes after weeks of pushing by Gov. Scott Walker and GOP leaders for lawmakers to approve the deal before a Sept. 30 deadline set by the company.
Kimberly-Clark has agreed to extend that deadline, the company said Tuesday.
I’m not surprised that the pro-Trump counties are taking a tariff hit. Guess what? They still will vote for Trump. The Republicans have the magic bullet to neutralize any economic problems with their policies: White resentment and racism.
There has been much gnashing and wailing about how the Democrats have lost the white working class, and how they need to address the economic needs of the white working class to win the “Reagan Democrats” back. It’s pointless to even try. What motivates way too much of white America, particularly white working class America, is not economic hardship, family values, or any other of the merkins taped over the actual reason, but rather white identity. It trumps everything else. The Democrats have no possibility of winning any of those votes unless they ban minorities from their party, just like the Republicans have.
Every Republican since Nixon has run an implicitly or, in the case of Trump, explicitly racist campaign, aimed at white fear and loathing. And…It worked for them. Don’t expect them to do anything different in the future. That it is leading up to a second civil war in this country is of no matter.
American exceptionalism is a myth. We are just another country of warring tribes.
A minority, but a strident minority, of our fellow citizens have turned from the democratic tradition to demands for a government of, by, and for only their own ilk. They are larger and more influential than the Know Nothings or Bund ever were. As a portion of the whole society, only the Confederates in their day had greater numbers. As a matter of absolute power, neither Jefferson Davis nor the whole Confederate leadership a thousand times over had such power as Trump and the GOP do through their control of the federal government.
The great – and deadly – breakthrough of Trumpism has been to reach a large faction, numbering millions, of implacable ethnic nationalists. They would rather destroy this democratic order than live under it. That’s been true of others before them. What’s different now is that, except for the Confederates, never has a faction like this had more success both at seizing power and in creating alternative media and institutions to advance their ideology in opposition to the majority.