Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:03 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 19m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the seven hundred forty-ninth day.
On this day in 1520, Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean.
Recommended for reading in full:
Patrick Marley and Molly Back report Republicans to hold lame-duck session to limit Tony Evers and advance GOP priorities:
Republican lawmakers plan to hold a lame-duck session as early as next week to curb the incoming Democratic governor’s powers over state rules, add GOP appointees to a state board, and possibly move the 2020 presidential primary to help a conservative state Supreme Court justice.
Unlikely to be part of the session is the reason lawmakers claim to be calling it in the first place: a long-stalled $70 million subsidy package to save a Kimberly-Clark Corp. plant in the Fox Valley.
Republicans who control the Senate are still short at least six votes for that measure and may not be able to pass it, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said Tuesday.
Dana Milbank observes The truth is finally catching up with Trump:
Trump may say that this is the “best economy” in history, that his “tariffs are the greatest.” But Americans can now see General Motors, facing some $700 million in higher steel prices because of tariffs, announcing on Monday that it is closing five factories and laying off nearly 15,000 workers. They can also see market gyrations, rising interest rates, rising debt and forecasts for slower growth.
Trump may say the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is a “hoax” by a “conflicted prosecutor gone rogue.” But, after a half-dozen convictions, Mueller’s prosecutors Monday promised a “detailed” court filing outlining lies told them by Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman. This, as The Post reported, means “prosecutors may know more about Manafort’s interactions than he realized, allowing them to catch him in alleged lies.”
Danielle Kaeding reports Climate Report Warns Of Declining Agricultural Production, Biodiversity:
A new federal report says climate change is expected to have wide-ranging impacts on the Midwest, including declines in agricultural production and biodiversity. The latest volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, NCA4, also details the threats climate change may pose to the region’s economy through increased flood risks and impacts to human health with degrading air and water quality.
Harry Littman asks What Was Paul Manafort Thinking?:
Two months ago, he struck a plea deal with Robert Mueller, the special counsel — he pleaded guilty but agreed to provide full and truthful information in exchange for a more lenient sentence. But according to a filing by Mr. Mueller’s team on Monday, Mr. Manafort lied to them repeatedly, and after multiple warnings. He is now in a far worse position than if he had never elected to cooperate, or if he had followed through on his agreement.
It certainly looks like Mueller has sprung a double-shuffle, behind-the-back, perjury trap on Trump. The recent events are just happening in too sweet an order for it not to be a master stroke.
Here is how it appears to be playing out:
On the same day, it drops that Manafort is getting his plea agreement revoked for lying to Mueller, as well as that Manafort has been snitching to Trump what he was telling Mueller. Mueller clearly has other evidence that Manafort was lying, but has been sitting on it. All of this comes out on the day after Trump turns in his homework to Mueller.
Presuming Trump and Manafort have been synching their testimony, a perfectly reasonable assumption, then Trump has repeated Manafort’s lies. Mueller has Trumps answers in writing, presumably sworn, and has corroborating evidence that Manafort was lying. That puts Trump in ipso-facto perjury territory.
On the same day, it drops that Manafort has been getting regularly cuddly with Julian Assange in England. Do you suppose that was what Manafort was lying about?
Trump is fcked. So is Manafort, as there is no way for Trump to pardon him now without it being correctly labeled as obstruction of justice. These were desperate moves by scared and desperate men. Trump is up against the wall, looking the bright lights in the eye, and acting increasingly unhinged. The next few days will be both fascinating and frightening.
I think this is spot-on. Trump’s situation isn’t better, it’s not even the same as months ago – it’s far worse after all these developments. Manafort has either thrown away his life, or Trump will throw away his own by pardoning Manafort. Communication between Manafort’s and Trump’s lawyers after Manafort’s plea deal was desperately reckless. People are only desperate when their situations are poor; Manafort’s situation was already terrible by definition (multiple counts as a federal felon).
Assange – who’s not a journalist but a tool of the Russian state – perhaps thought that he’d skirt past all this. That’s quite the miscalculation: he’s living in a tiny space within the Ecuadoran embassy, too small even for a cat’s company. (Honestly, that election disrupter isn’t even worthy of a goldfish. The cat’s better off without him.)
The social aspect of this – apart from the law – is that Fox and their ilk keep trying to convince diehards that there’s nothing to worry about. They’re approaching flat-earth advocacy – some may believe it, but no one rational would believe in those who believe it. If any group wanted lessons in marginalizing itself, they’d watch the Trumpists and do what they’re doing.