Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will see a partly sunny day with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 6:29 AM and sunset 7:25 PM, for 12h 55m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 82.8% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}five hundred tenth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., aged 39, is shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. King delivered his final speech the evening before:
Recommended for reading in full —
➤ Matt Taibbi asks Can We Be Saved From Facebook?:
We shouldn’t be asking Facebook to fix the problem. We should be fixing Facebook. It’s our collective misfortune that this perhaps silliest-in-history supercorporation – a tossed-off hookup site turned international cat-video vault turned Orwellian surveillance megavillain – has dragged us all to the very cliff edge of modern technological capitalism.
We’ve reached a moment in history where many companies are more powerful than even major industrialized nations, and in some cases have essentially replaced governments as de facto regulators and overseers. But some of those companies suck just a little too badly at the governing part, leaving us staring into a paradox.
The Russians call this situation a sobaka na sene, a dog on the hay. Asleep in the manger, the dog itself won’t eat the hay. But it won’t let you eat it either.
➤ Clint Watts contends For Russia, Trump Was a Vehicle, Not a Target:
A lot of the focus on the Mueller investigation has fallen on Donald Trump: Did he obstruct the investigation? Was he a “Manchurian Candidate” or just a Russian ally, by ideology or business interests?
In my view, as a former F.B.I. special agent who has watched the Kremlin’s infiltration of America since 2014, the answer may be neither. A standard Russian approach would have been to influence Mr. Trump through surrogates like Mr. Gates and Paul Manafort rather than through direct command through an individual — in this case, the candidate and then president.
Russian intelligence develops options and pathways over many years; as objectives arise — like the election of Mr. Trump — they focus and engage all available touch points.
…
Typically, the Kremlin deploys layers of surrogates and proxies offering business inducements, information or threatened reprisals that can individually be explained away by coincidence while masking the strings and guiding hands of the Kremlin’s puppet masters and their objectives. When called upon by the Kremlin, oligarchs, contractors, criminals and spies (current or former) all provide levers for advancing President Vladimir Putin’s assault on democracies.
➤ Molly Beck reports State paid more than $735K in last decade to settle cases involving sexual harassment:
Wisconsin taxpayers have paid at least $735,500 since 2007 to resolve at least 12 complaints of sexual harassment, newly released records show.
The state paid that amount between January 2007 and November 2017 to resolve complaints that included allegations of sexual harassment within UW-Madison, UW-Stevens Point, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Justice, the state Legislature and Barron County courts.
The payments range from $6,500 to $250,000, according to records released by the Department of Administration to the Wisconsin State Journal under the state’s open records law and information from UW-Madison.
➤ Josh Barro observes If Trump runs against Amazon, he will lose:
- Amazon is going to be a brutal opponent for President Donald Trump if he decides to escalate his battle with the company.
- Amazon is largely popular with the American public — even with Trump supporters.
- Trump’s past corporate opponents, like the NFL, were weak where Amazon is strong.
(Trump’s like someone from the recording industry at the dawn of digital music, lacking any grasp of the strength of digital, and the changes it would inexorably bring.)
➤ So, Who Invented the Fahrenheit and Celsius Temperature Scales?:
Well..that was an entertaining SC election, eh?
The good citizens of Wisco-World seem to have gotten tired of being lab rats in the “laboratory of democracy”. Walker, who is a student of politics, called it a “Blue Wave”. If nothing else, that was evidence that his grasp of the obvious had become liminal. He was right. Schrenock even lost his home county (Sauk) by 12 points. Schrenock was an imperfect candidate, with his major credential being appointed to a county judgeship by Walker, mostly on the strength of being arrested twice for barricading abortion clinics. That would ordinarily have the pull of a rare-earth magnet for R-Teamers, but it didn’t work at all well last night.
Lots of money was put into the “non-partisan” race. Schrenock got $400K from the WI Republican party, as well as a ton of NRA and WMC bux. Wi Mfg and Commerce has been buying WI SC elections for the last 20 years, with unblemished (until now) success. Dallett had not only a much superior resume, but Eric “The Terminator” Holder on her side. Holder has to be feeling pretty good about his double win of both the SC election and the clubbering of Walker on the special election blow-off ploy.
It is becoming obvious just why Walker does not want to hold any elections in what is a very toxic (to him, anyway) political climate. The hegemony of the R-Team in Wisco-World is in some jeopardy. The Republicans have won a lot of squeakers that have been facilitated by their voter-suppression and Gerrymandering successes. Those techniques are very effective on the margins, but are not potent enuf to deal with a wave election, and that is what is coming at them.
This was a very ugly election, with some of the nastiest ads seen in some years put out for Schrenock. That they didn’t work this time for WMC is a hopeful sign that ‘Sconnies have gotten an ass-full of that kind of shit.
The special elections, now scheduled for 6-12, will be fascinating. Expect both sides to go all-in. The Dems are energized more than they have been in a generation. The R-Team is desperate to not lose anymore, and risk demoralizing their troops. The Fox Valley, Green Bay, and Door county went blue, which bodes ill for R-Team chances in the 1st Senatorial district special election. Columbia County went blue, too, and that is most of the 42nd Assembly district.
It will be a fun couple of months until the next election.
Yes, it was quite the night, with Dallet winning easily. That she might have won wasn’t in doubt; that she would win so easily seems more the (happy) surprise.
Here’s that Gov. Walker tweet for readers who may not have seen it:
We think about November, but here in Wisconsin we have June (and then a choice of gubernatorial candidates) ahead of us. If June goes well, then I think statewide ticket candidates will have a good chance of receiving generous funding in the fall, including from out-of-state.
You’re right about the money these candidates will face. The WISGOP will be well-fed, and if people from across the country want to help us here, to preserve this state from Trump-supporting candidates and their oily operatives, we should welcome that support.
We’ve a chance to win here, and make the state a better place. We’ll need every vote, and every contribution, to make that happen.