Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of fifty-four. Sunrise is 6:31 AM and sunset 7:47 PM, for 12h 52m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 46.7% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred forty-sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1865, Union forces capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry participate in the occupation of Petersburg and Richmond. The brigade containing the 19th Wisconsin Infantry is the first to enter Richmond on the morning of April 3rd. Their regimental flag becomes the first to fly over the captured capital of the Confederacy when Colonel Samuel Vaughn planted it on Richmond City Hall.
Recommended for reading in full —
The Los Angeles Times confronts the truth behind Why Trump lies: “The insult that Donald Trump brings to the equation is an apparent disregard for fact so profound as to suggest that he may not see much practical distinction between lies, if he believes they serve him, and the truth. His approach succeeds because of his preternaturally deft grasp of his audience. Though he is neither terribly articulate nor a seasoned politician, he has a remarkable instinct for discerning which conspiracy theories in which quasi-news source, or which of his own inner musings, will turn into ratings gold. He targets the darkness, anger and insecurity that hide in each of us and harnesses them for his own purposes. If one of his lies doesn’t work — well, then he lies about that.”
Jenna Johnson reports that Trump’s budget would hit rural towns especially hard — but they’re willing to trust him: “The president’s proposed budget would disproportionately harm the rural areas and small towns that were key to his unexpected win. Many red states like Oklahoma — where every single county went for Trump — are more reliant on the federal funds that Trump wants to cut than states that voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Durant has already undergone years of state budget cuts, as Oklahoma has been unable to balance its increasing costs with declines in the oil industry, tax cuts and generous corporate tax credits. That has made federal funds even more vital to the city, especially for programs that serve the poor and working class. “It’s very easy to look at a laundry list of things that exist and say, ‘Cut, cut, cut, cut,’ and say, ‘Well, this is wasteful spending’ without really understanding the true impact,” said Durant City Manager Tim Rundel, who grew up in poverty in northwest Arkansas. “The bottom line is a lot of our citizens depend on those programs.”
[Trump did not carry Whitewater proper (that is, the city), but even if he had, he would have been unworthy of trust, and deserving only of relentless opposition. We’re still early in a long struggle, and for now it seems reasonable that one’s focus should be on Trump, His Inner Circle, Principal Surrogates, and Media Defenders.]Yamiche Alcindor reports that In Ohio County That Backed Trump, Word of Housing Cuts Stirs Fear: “In Warren, Amber Barr, 34, lives in a women’s supportive housing complex and regrets voting for Mr. Trump. She and her 4-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, survive on a $588 disability check and $340 in food stamps every month. Her rent is $99, and she fears that Mr. Trump’s housing cuts are just the beginning. “If I didn’t have these programs, I wouldn’t have any kind of support, I wouldn’t have any kind of direction as to what to do, where to go, and I wouldn’t have any money to help me find resources,” Ms. Barr said, as she began to cry. Housing assistance has helped her focus on getting treatment for hepatitis C, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and seeing a psychiatrist for anxiety. It also meant escaping the temporary housing she was in for several months after leaving an abusive relationship.”
It’s Opening Day, and Tom Hadricourt reports Brewers manager Craig Counsell ready for another ‘roller coaster’ season: Q: The Brewers are presently balancing the short-term goal of trying to win as many games as you can with the long-term goal of returning to playoff mode as soon as possible in this rebuilding process. Is that difficult to do? A: It will always be our jobs to have both of those goals in our heads and affect our decision-making. That’s how eventually you will sustain winning. You can never have one without the other, and decisions will fall at different ends of that spectrum. (General manager) David (Stearns) has been consistent in saying we’re going to make some decisions that satisfy one more than the other. I think that will be the case even when we’re winning (in the future). Otherwise, you run out of moves in our market. But, once the game starts, the long-term goes out the window. We might make decisions on who we’re allocating playing time to, with a longer focus. But when the game starts, you’re doing everything you can to win that game.”
Filmmaker Sam Forencich sees Oregon’s Invisible Beauty:
Invisible Oregon is a stunning time-lapse film shot entirely with infrared converted cameras, uncovering a landscape that’s out of reach of ordinary human sight. “Invisible Oregon is a study of light across time and space,” wrote the filmmaker Sam Forencich. “As the sun rises over the state of Oregon, infrared light travels across the earth revealing the subtleties of new growth and the dramatic intersection of sky and earth.” Forencich is a photographer for the National Basketball Association by day, and experiments with different types of filmmaking in his spare time. The sound design for Invisible Oregon was done by his son, Travis Forencich.