Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with a chance of afternoon & evening showers, and a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:42 AM and sunset 5:34 PM, for 10h 51m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 34% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1792, Pres. Washington signs the Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department. On this day in 1863, Company A of the 10th Wisconsin Infantry began training as sharpshooters in Madison, Wisconsin.
Recommended for reading in full —
Annie Armstrong interviews Ex-Neo Nazis [to] Explain What’s Driving the Alt-Right: “Do you feel like if that hadn’t have happened, your old self could have identified with the alt-right? Frank Meeink: Oh, absolutely. It’s the same movement. It’s just cleaned up; it’s well-spoken. They preach exactly the same stuff that I used to preach. Exactly the same stuff. Angela King: The alt-right does not exist. It’s nothing more than white supremacists who have repackaged the hate and served it up in a more palatable form for human consumption.”
Josh Marshall describes The American Experiment in Exile: “The historic oddity of this situation points to a common dynamic Americans now face at home and abroad. Our partners in the international order we created – some of whom we conquered to make it possible – are now seeking to defend it from us. Let’s say that again, Defend it from us. How do we now as loyal Americans look at the warnings of the French and the Germans, as well as the British and our other erstwhile allies’ warnings? This is a complicated question which different people, depending on their professions and governmental responsibilities and personal dispositions, must answer in different ways. But we cannot ignore the fact that the American experiment is now in a kind of exile – taken refuge elsewhere – and the executive power of the American state now under a kind of, hopefully temporary, occupation. We face a comparable dynamic at home. I have been thinking for weeks that the central challenge and reality of the Trump Era is what do you do as an institutionalist when the central institutions of the state have been taken over, albeit democratically, by what amount to pirates, people who want to destroy them? To put it another way, do the institutions and norms which Trump and his gang are trying to destroy become shackles and obstacles in the way of those trying to defend them? There’s no easy answers to these questions.
Kristina Rizga explains Why Teaching Civics in America’s Classrooms Must Be a Trump-Era Priority: “In 2011, all federal funding for civics and social studies was eliminated. Some state and local funding dropped, too, forcing many cash-strapped districts to prioritize math and English—the subjects most prominently featured in standardized tests. A study by George Washington University’s Center on Education Policy found that between 2001 and 2007, 36 percent of districts decreased elementary classroom time spent on social studies, including civics—a drop that most affected underfunded schools serving working-class, poor, rural, and inner-city kids.*
Charles F. Gardner reports on the NBA All-Star Game: West prevails; Giannis leads East: “NEW ORLEANS – The Greek Freak put on a show in his all-star debut. Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a team-high 30 points and pounded home some crowd-pleasing dunks, but the Western Conference all-stars pulled away in the final quarter for a 192-182 victory over the East in the NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center. New Orleans forward Anthony Davis set an NBA All-Star Game record with 52 points to lead the West, beating the mark of 42 points set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Russell Westbrook just missed beating Chamberlain’s mark, scoring 41 points. Antetokounmpo was impressive with 14-of-17 shooting on layups and dunks. He attempted a single three-pointer and missed it. He scored in the last second to reach the 30-point mark, the most scored by a Bucks player in an NBA All-Star Game. He also had six rebounds, three steals and one assist while playing 23 minutes.”
Have Conspiracy Theories Gone Mainstream?