Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy, with an occasional thunderstorm, and a high of forty-eight. Sunrise is 5:48 AM and sunset 7:55 PM, for 14h 06m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 21.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred seventy-third day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, aged 73, of Wisconsin’s Fifth Congressional District plans a town hall at Whitewater’s municipal building at 1 PM. Sensenbrenner has been in the national news most recently for his observation that “nobody’s got to use the internet” and for losing his cool at a February town hall (“The congressman, who prides himself on his prolific schedule of town-hall-style meetings, banged his gavel and insisted that his rules for civility be obeyed.“).
Sensenbrenner’s rules for civility are singular. Readers may recall that Sensenbrenner commented negatively (at a church fundraiser, of all places) on Michelle Obama’s weight, for which he later apologized:
” ‘He then talked about how different first ladies have had different projects – Laura Bush and literacy – and he named two or three others,’ Marsh-Meigs said in an interview last week. ‘And then he said, ‘And Michelle Obama, her project is obesity. And look at her big butt.’ ‘
” ‘That’s basically what he said,” she continued. “It was a combination of her work on obesity and her shape.’
“The remark stunned the five congregants, according to Marsh-Meigs, who was the only woman at the table where the conversation occurred. She said she believes Sensenbrenner might have thought she wasn’t paying attention because she was busy knitting.”
(Perhaps a staffer has supplied the congressman with a helpful Post-it® note for today’s town hall: (1) stay calm (2) don’t say anything foolish.)
On this day in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on 30 April by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois in Paris. On this day in 1864, Joseph Bailey directs Union soldiers, including the 23rd Wisconsin, to support six Union warships: “Bailey, who was from Wisconsin Dells and an experienced lumberjack, served as an engineer in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry. In a doomed campaign against the Confederates on the Red River in Louisiana, Union warships found themselves trapped by low water and the rocky river bed. As Confederate soldiers approached, Bailey employed water control techniques used by loggers to construct a series of dams that successfully narrowed the river, raised the water level by six feet, and provided enough surge to free the trapped fleet of gunboats. For his role in this rescue, Bailey was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He also received a Tiffany punch bowl from his fellow officers.”
Recommended for reading in full —
Sarah Kendzior offers Want to survive another 100 days of Trump? Don’t get complacent: “For over a year, citizens refused to accept that the unthinkable was not only thinkable, but probable. His win was a lesson in the dangers of complacency. The 100 days have shown Mr. Trump’s failures to be not a natural result of incompetence, but of vigilance that citizens and officials must continue to apply if they want to keep their republic. A new translation of Dante’s The Inferno bears the lines: “Forget your hopes. They were what brought you here.” This is good advice for those living in Mr. Trump’s special hell. The era of hope and change is over. The era of resistance and resolve is now.”
Pope Francis recently gave a surprise TED talk on why the only future worth building includes everyone:
Andrew Kramer reports on an aspect of Putin’s Russia in Despite the ‘Yuck Factor,’ Leeches Are Big in Russian Medicine: “Leeches — yes, leeches — are still widely prescribed in Russian medicine, about 10 million of them every year, in many cases as a low-cost substitute for blood thinners like warfarin. “When you do it the first time, you think, ‘My God, leeches!’” Mrs. Kalinicheva said. “But after you go through it, you understand there is nothing to worry about.” In Russia, a medicinal leech costs less than $1, and a typical application requires three to seven of the ravenous little creatures. Leech treatments, available throughout the country, take 30 to 40 minutes, though the resulting wounds ooze blood for an additional six hours or so until the natural anticoagulant in leech venom wears off. Though Russia under President Vladimir V. Putin is muscling its way back onto the world stage militarily, economic development has lagged woefully, and that includes the medical system.”
Cataloging Every Tweet by the President Since He Took Office: “As Mr. Trump approaches 100 days in office, we’ve taken stock of how he has used the medium, cataloging his Twitter posts into 10 themes: Undermining Obama (15 tweets), Raising Alarm (40), Pressuring Congress (24), Discrediting the Media (41), Bullying Foreign Leaders (25), Singling Out Companies (12), Serving as Spin (101), Creating Drama and Excitement (38), Promoting the Administration (31), Making America Great Again (169)”
From above, a drone shows the landscape of Norway’s Lofoten Islands, shot using a DJI Mavic Pro: