Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will bring a mix of rain, sleet, and snow (but with little or no accumulation). Sunrise is 6:51 AM and sunset 4:28 PM, for 9h 36m 40s of daytime. The moon is new today. Today is the {tooltip}three hundred seventy-fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1928, Steamboat Willie premiers at Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City. On this day in 1930, a police raid a Beloit home: “federal agents and county deputies raided Otto Matschke’s home, north of Beloit, and seized an illegal still and 300 gallons of contraband moonshine.”
Recommended for reading in full —
United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions mocks concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and his Federalist Society audience laughs:
“Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here. Any Russians? Anybody been to Russia?” – AG Jeff Sessions @FedSoc Convention. pic.twitter.com/6eK90EKrCB
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 17, 2017
Ken Dilanian and Carol E. Lee report Kushner failed to disclose outreach from Putin ally to Trump campaign:
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, failed to disclose what lawmakers called a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” involving a banker who has been accused of links to Russian organized crime, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
An email chain described Aleksander Torshin, a former senator and deputy head of Russia’s central bank who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as wanting Trump to attend an event on the sidelines of a National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Kentucky, in May 2016, the sources said. The email also suggests Torshin was seeking to meet with a high-level Trump campaign official during the convention, and that he may have had a message for Trump from Putin, the sources said….
A Washington Post editorial reminds Puerto Rico is still in the dark:
THE DEPARTURE from Puerto Rico this week of the Army general who led the military’s response to Hurricane Maria is being depicted as a sign the island is no longer in crisis mode but instead is transitioning to long-term recovery. No matter what terms are used, it is clear there are still enormous problems in Puerto Rico, with far too many people living in conditions that simply would not be tolerated on the mainland. More than ever, the people of Puerto Rico must not be forgotten. Those charged with rebuilding the island need to show they are up to the task and not repeat the mistakes that marked the initial response to the catastrophic storm.
It has been nearly two months since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, yet the majority of the island’s 3.4 million residents are still without electricity in what ranks as the largest blackout in U.S. history. No one has a clear handle on when the lights will be back on. Other problems include damaged homes, people in shelters, lack of access to clean water and, the New York Times reported, fears of a full-fledged mental-health crisis….
(Emphasis added.)
Rosie Gray and Mackay Coppins write Conservatives Reap the Whirlwind of Their War on the Media:
All news is “fake news”—at least if you’re a diehard Roy Moore supporter.
With sexual misconduct allegations continuing to mount against the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, Moore has defied calls to drop out of the race by advancing an audacious conspiracy theory—that partisan fabulists in the mainstream media are working with his enemies in the political establishment to wage a nefarious smear campaign against him. Not long ago, such claims likely would have backfired. But in the Trump era, anti-press sentiment has reached a fever pitch on the right—something candidates like Moore are eagerly exploiting.
Moore has not directly denied many of the specific allegations. Instead, he has sought to cast himself as the victim of a witch hunt and sow just enough doubt in the stories to muddy the waters in voters’ minds.
“Their only response to this is really to find other villains in the process to take the heat off of them,” said the Republican strategist John Brabender, a former Rick Santorum campaign adviser. The two villains they have chosen are The Washington Post and other mainstream outlets, to “discredit the messenger,” Brabender said, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment, “to make the point that this is really just elitist establishment figures who never wanted Roy Moore”….
Let’s Meet the Argentine King of Gypsy Jazz: