Good morning. 
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of fifty. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 4:25 PM, for 9h 02m 00s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 65.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is both the one thousand five hundred sixth day and the forty-seventh day.
On this day in 1947, the transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
Recommended for reading in full —
Jennifer Rubin writes John Kelly is wrong. These were not good people:
Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly — the man who enthusiastically presided over the separation of children at the border; defended President Trump’s lies and accommodation toward Russia; and enabled arguably the most destructive president in our history — told the Atlantic: “The vast majority of people who worked in the White House were decent people who were doing the best they could to serve the nation.” He added, “They’ve unfortunately paid quite a price for that in reputation and future employment. They don’t deserve that. They deserve better than that, because they kept the train from careening off the tracks.”
This is dead wrong. These people are not victims. Their reputations have been besmirched for the best of reasons: They participated in an administration unparalleled in its corruption, meanness, racism and authoritarianism.
Victoria Bekiempis reports More immigrant women say they were abused by ICE gynecologist:
More women have joined an official legal petition alleging that they were medically abused by a gynecologist while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in a move that significantly expands a case that has shocked America.
The legal petition outlining these alleged abuses were filed in the Middle District of Georgia federal court late Monday night. More than 40 women have submitted written testimony attesting to claims of abuse, one attorney on their case said.
These women, who have been detained by Ice at Irwin county detention center in Georgia, have alleged that they underwent invasive and unnecessary medical procedures. The women’s attorneys have also alleged that these women endured retribution for speaking out, including deportation in some cases. The petition largely echoed past legal filings and accounts by accusers.
“Petitioners were victims of non-consensual, medically unindicated and/or invasive gynecological procedures, including unnecessary surgical procedures under general anesthesia, performed by and/or at the direction of [gynaecologist Dr Mahendra Amin],” the petition said. “In many instances, the medically unindicated gynecological procedures Respondent Amin performed on Petitioners amounted to sexual assault.”
The Washington Post editorial board writes Trump’s final month might make the past four years seem calm:
WHILE AMERICANS prepare to celebrate the holiday season, President Trump and his hardcore supporters are contemplating a turbulent final month that could make the rest of his chaotic presidency look placid. As Mr. Trump sidelines even some of his most loyal aides and allies, the few checks that remained on the president’s behavior are eroding, potentially leading to a Jan. 6 showdown over electoral votes on Capitol Hill that could further damage U.S. democracy.
Government officials and even some presidential aides are reportedly bracing for what might come next. The possibilities include strange orders to the armed forces, mass firings in key national security departments, more bizarre pardons, demands to prosecute Trump political enemies or the appointment of one or several special counsels to force the Justice Department to investigate bogus claims of election irregularities and other Trump obsessions.