Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of sixty. Sunrise is 6:45 AM and sunset 5:31 PM, for 10h 45m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 52.4% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the {tooltip}one hundred first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1885, Mark Twain publishes the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the United States.On this day in 1920, Janesville, Wisconsin city council votes to allow billiard halls and bowling alleys to open for limited hours on Sunday.
Recommended for reading in full —
Rebecca Carballo reports that Cooperative mergers reduce options for dairy farmers in Wisconsin: “The number of dairy cooperatives in Wisconsin continues to shrink, leaving dairy farmers in the state with fewer options for selling their milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent cooperative statistics reports. The number of agriculture cooperatives headquartered in Wisconsin dropped from 180 in 2000 to 113 in 2015. Of those, dairy cooperatives headquartered in Wisconsin dropped from 31 to 21 in that same period. The explanation for the shrinkage is simple but problematic for smaller dairy farms: Cooperatives across the agricultural industry are consolidating. Darin Von Ruden, Westby dairy farmer and president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, finds the increasing number of cooperative mergers worrisome, noting consolidation was especially prevalent in northwestern Wisconsin. “We have fewer and fewer places we can sell our products to,” Von Ruden said. “We’re lucky in southwest Wisconsin we have a few different places, but it’s a different story in the northwest.” He added that cooperatives such as Dairy Farmers of America have become “marketing giants” in the southwest part of the U.S. “If that’s the way they’re going to carry on their business around the rest of the country, that is a scary thought for the 50- to 100-cow operators,” Von Ruden said.”
Emily Guskin and Scott Clement interview independent voters for ‘What the hell is he doing on Twitter and watching cable TV all the time?’: Eight independents talk Trump: “Tom Barnett, an independent from Binghamton, N.Y., said he disapproves of Trump but not strongly, feeling the newly elected president is acting too quickly on some policies. “Sure you make promises, but he’s moving way too fast,” Barnett said. On the travel ban, Barnett said: “I think it’s too quick; he should have looked more into it. And deporting a lot of these people; I don’t think that’s right. Even if they did make a mistake in their lives.” The 51-year-old Barnett also has problems with Trump’s media habits and temperament. “What the hell is he doing on Twitter and watching cable TV all the time?” he asked. “I don’t want a president watching cable TV all the time! That’s my job!” “He’s got very thin skin,” Barnett said, “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it.”
Erin Gloria Ryan sees The Downfall of Kellyanne Conway: “As Kellyanne’s once-forceful cable news denials have disintegrated into whimpers, I can’t say I feel anything for her at all. I don’t mind when people point out how tired she looks. I simply cannot dredge up any sympathy for a person who has acknowledged the structural problems most women face only when she is personally facing them, or used them as derailing tactics when she’s losing an argument. I can’t mourn the downfall of a fair-weather feminist, a woman who has used her power to hurt other women. Ms. Conway made her bed. And now it’s time for her to get some sleep.”
David Frum asks How High Does Russia’s Influence Reach?: “Nobody would care if an incoming national security adviser had confidential conversations with an ambassador of a hostile foreign government before Inauguration Day, if it were believed that the conversations served a legitimate and disinterested public purpose. But that is exactly what is doubted in this case. To put the story in simplest terms: 1) Russian spies hacked Democratic Party communications in order to help elect Donald Trump. 2) Donald Trump welcomed the help, used it, publicly solicited more of it—and was then elected president of the United States. 3) President Obama sanctioned Russia for its pro-Trump espionage. 4) While Russia considered its response, its ambassador spoke with the national security adviser-designate about the sanctions 5) The adviser, Flynn, reportedly asked Russia not to overreact, signaling that the new administration would review the sanctions; Russia did not respond. 6) As president-elect and then president, Donald Trump has indicated that he seeks to lift precisely those sanctions caused by Russia’s espionage work on his behalf.”
It’s a battle between an octopus and a crab, until (at around :55) someone else shows up: