Daily Bread for 12.17.17

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of thirty-seven. Sunrise is 7:20 AM and sunset 4:22 PM, for 9h 02m 01s of daytime. The moon is new, with .03% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}four hundred third day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

First flight of the Wright Flyer I, December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip.

On this day in 1903, the Wright Brothers successfully achieve controlled, human-powered flight:

the Wrights finally took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to 27 miles per hour (43 km/h). The first flight, by Orville at 10:35 am, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 miles per hour (10.9 km/h) over the ground, was recorded in a famous photograph.^[41] The next two flights covered approximately 175 and 200 feet (53 and 61 m), by Wilbur and Orville respectively. Their altitude was about 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground.^[76] The following is Orville Wright’s account of the final flight of the day:

Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just about 12 o’clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred ft had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be 852 feet; the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two.^[77]

European doubts about their achievement turned into effusive praise after their 1908 public exhibition:

The brothers’ contracts with the U.S. Army and a French syndicate depended on successful public flight demonstrations that met certain conditions. The brothers had to divide their efforts. Wilbur sailed for Europe; Orville would fly near Washington, D.C.

Facing much skepticism in the French aeronautical community and outright scorn by some newspapers that called him a “bluffeur”, Wilbur began official public demonstrations on August 8, 1908 at the Hunaudières horse racing track near the town of Le Mans, France. His first flight lasted only one minute 45 seconds, but his ability to effortlessly make banking turns and fly a circle amazed and stunned onlookers, including several pioneer French aviators, among them Louis Blériot. In the following days, Wilbur made a series of technically challenging flights, including figure-eights, demonstrating his skills as a pilot and the capability of his flying machine, which far surpassed those of all other pioneering aircraft and pilots of the day.^[103][104]

The French public was thrilled by Wilbur’s feats and flocked to the field by the thousands, and the Wright brothers instantly became world-famous. Former doubters issued apologies and effusive praise. L’Aérophile editor Georges Besançon wrote that the flights “have completely dissipated all doubts. Not one of the former detractors of the Wrights dare question, today, the previous experiments of the men who were truly the first to fly …”^[105] Leading French aviation promoter Ernest Archdeacon wrote, “For a long time, the Wright brothers have been accused in Europe of bluff … They are today hallowed in France, and I feel an intense pleasure … to make amends.”^[106]

Recommended for reading in full — 

Chris Geidner reports Key Officials Push Back Against Trump Campaign’s Claim That A Federal Office Illegally Turned Over Emails To Special Counsel:

A lawyer for the Trump transition team on Saturday accused a federal agency of illegally and unconstitutionally turning over thousands of emails to the Special Counsel’s Office.

Specifically, the General Services Administration (GSA) turned over emails written during the transition — the period between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day 2017 — and the Trump campaign is claiming in a letter that the decision to do so violated the law.

Officials with both the Special Counsel’s Office and GSA, however, pushed back against the Trump campaign lawyer’s claims in the hours after the letter was issued….

Loewentritt read to BuzzFeed News a series of agreements that anyone had to agree to when using GSA materials during the transition, including that there could be monitoring and auditing of devices and that, “Therefore, no expectation of privacy can be assumed.”

[GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny] Loewentritt told BuzzFeed News that the GSA initially “suggested a warrant or subpoena” for the materials, but that the Special Counsel’s Office determined the letter route was sufficient.

As to whether the Trump campaign should have been informed of the request, Loewentritt said, “That’s between the Special Counsel and the transition team.”

Asked about Langhofer’s letter and Loewentritt’s statements — and after publication of this story — a spokesperson for the Special Counsel’s Office, Peter Carr, told BuzzFeed News, “When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process.”

Renato Mariotti nicely sumarizes this issue:

(Trump doesn’t have a valid legal position: he has a rabid ideological one.)

Brian Stelter describes How Fox News and President Trump create an anti-Mueller ‘feedback loop’:

The right-wing commentary and President Trump’s criticism of the FBI are part of a vicious circle. The TV hosts encourage Trump, then Trump supplies sound bites for their shows, and then the hosts are even more emboldened.

With Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election reaching closer to Trump’s inner circle, Fox hosts like Sean Hannity continue to demand Mueller’s firing. Every night, Hannity tells millions of viewers that Mueller’s probe is a corrupt plot to take down Trump and reverse the outcome of the election. Trump is a big fan of Hannity’s show, and the two men speak on a regular basis.

“The anti-Mueller rhetoric in conservative media right now is part of a feedback loop,” Nicole Hemmer, the author of a book about conservative media, “Messengers of the Right,” told CNNMoney.

“Conservative media personalities know Trump hates the investigation and wants it shut down,” she said in an email. “They bash the investigation and Mueller, and when Trump sees that happening (say, on ‘Fox & Friends’) it reinforces his belief that the investigation is illegitimate and that he should do something to end it. The likely consequence is that this increases the odds of Trump attempting to fire Mueller.”

Hemmer added: “We’ll have to wait and see whether internal restraints within the White House — lawyers and advisers — are enough to stop him from doing that.”

(One’s best, reasoned guess is that Trump will not exercise restraint, but will plunge America into a constitutional crisis. The question afteward: Which side was one on?)

Carrie Johnson lists 3 Ways Trump Or His Allies Might Try To Disrupt The Mueller Russia Probe [her article lists each in detail]:

From the airwaves of conservative media to the hearing rooms of the House of Representatives, Republican allies of the White House are attacking the Department of Justice investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

GOP voices are accusing the team assembled by special counsel Robert Mueller of bias against President Trump — and they’re appearing to set the stage for some action. Senior Justice Department officials are defending the investigation, which has already secured indictments or guilty pleas against four people with ties to the Trump campaign.

Here, we consider a few ways the White House or its allies could disrupt the special counsel probe.

1. Find a way to replace the attorney general….

2. Fire Justice Department officials who refuse to dismiss the special counsel, until you find one who will….

3. Pressure the Justice Department to investigate the investigators….

(Each method would be an onstruction of justice.)

The Washington Post‘s editorial board writes of The unchecked threat from Russia:

THE CACOPHONOUS and frequently confusing debates over the Russia investigations by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and several committees of Congress tend to obscure some big and virtually uncontested truths: that the regime of Vladi­mir Putin intervened in the 2016 election with the intention of harming U.S. democracy; that it will almost certainly seek to do so again; and that there has been no concerted effort to defend the country from this national security threat.

We say “virtually uncontested” because the principal dissenter from this consensus, which unites U.S. intelligence agencies and a large bipartisan majority in Congress, is President Trump — who continues to shove away the conclusive proof about Russia’s actions compiled by American intelligence professionals and to obstruct efforts by his Cabinet and staff to respond to them.

A comprehensive report by Post reporters Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Philip Rucker contains dismaying evidence of the resulting dysfunction. Mr. Trump has never held a Cabinet-level meeting on the Russian intervention or on how to prevent its recurrence. At the National Security Council, it is understood that to bring up the Russian threat is to risk enraging the president. The same goes for the CIA officials who conduct Mr. Trump’s daily intelligence briefing; they sometimes leave material on Russia out of the oral session, so as not to send the session “off the rails,” in the words of a former senior official.

Watch Blue Origin Rocket Launch of Crew Capsule 2.0:

On December 12, Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin launched a rocket test out of its base in West Texas. The launch included its Crew Capsule 2.0, which Blue Origin has adorned with giant windows for viewing. Following is a transcript of the video.

This is Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Blue Origin launched the rocket out of West Texas. This is the first time the company has launched this capsule.

On top of the rocket is Crew Capsule 2.0 with giant windows. There was a crash test dummy in this flight. The rocket touched down on a landing site. The capsule used parachutes to land in the desert.

The flight peaked 61 miles above Earth. Blue Origin plans to launch tourists to space in a similar capsule by 2019.