Good morning.
A new month begins in Whitewater with rain tapering off as the day unfolds, with a high of fifty-four. Sunrise is 5:47 AM and sunset 7:56 PM, for 14h 09m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32.7% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred seventy-fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1931, Pres. Hoover officially opens the Empire State Building when he turns on the buildings lights with the push a button in Washington, D.C. On this day in in 1954, Milton House (“”an architectural wonder when it was built in the Wisconsin wilderness” one hundred ten years earlier) becomes a museum.
Recommended for reading in full —
Mark Landler reports that Trump’s ‘Very Friendly’ Talk With Duterte Stuns Aides and Critics Alike: “During their “very friendly conversation,” the administration said in a late-night statement, Mr. Trump invited Mr. Duterte, an authoritarian leader accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, to visit him at the White House. Now, the administration is bracing for an avalanche of criticism from human rights groups. Two senior officials said they expected the State Department and the National Security Council, both of which were caught off guard by the invitation, to raise objections internally. The White House disclosed the news on a day when Mr. Trump fired up his supporters at a campaign-style rally in Harrisburg, Pa. The timing of the announcement — after a speech that was a grievance-filled jeremiad — encapsulated this president after 100 days in office: still ready to say and do things that leave people, even on his staff, slack-jawed.”
Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger report How the Republican right found allies in Russia: “On issues including gun rights, terrorism and same-sex marriage, many leading advocates on the right who grew frustrated with their country’s leftward tilt under President Barack Obama have forged ties with well-connected Russians and come to see that country’s authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin, as a potential ally. The attitude adjustment among many conservative activists helps explain one of the most curious aspects of the 2016 presidential race: a softening among many conservatives of their historically hard-line views of Russia. To the alarm of some in the GOP’s national security establishment, support in the party base for then-candidate Donald Trump did not wane even after he rejected the tough tone of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, who called Russia America’s No. 1 foe, and repeatedly praised Putin.”
Darron Simon reports that Controversial Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke faces protests Monday: “Thousands are expected to take to the streets of Wisconsin on Monday to demand that the governor remove controversial Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a tough-talking firebrand who wants to use his deputies and correction officers to enforce federal immigration laws. Among other concerns, organizers of the march in Milwaukee are critical of Clarke’s desire to join the Department of Homeland Security’s 287(g) program, which essentially deputizes local law enforcement agencies to operate as federal immigration agents. The Department of Homeland Security wants to expand the government’s ability to empower state and local law enforcement to perform the functions of immigration officers. “Sheriff Clarke, right off the bat, really waved the flag to say we’re going to bring it to Milwaukee County,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, the immigrant rights group organizing the statewide march, said Sunday of the 287(g) program. “It basically legalizes racial profiling because you can be stopped and questioned and put in detention based on how you look,” she said.”
Rosie Gray describes norm-disregarding Trump in The Entertainment Presidency: “Whether Trump’s challenges to convention permanently change Washington’s culture, though, or become a cautionary tale for future politicians, may largely be less determined by his success in reshaping debates than by his ability to deliver substantive results. “If you are viewed as successful, yeah, you may have altered the presidency,” said Tim Naftali, a clinical associate professor of history and public service at New York University. “But if you’re viewed as a failure, no.” “The long-term effects of his allergy to existing norms will depend on how well he does as president,” Naftali said. And, at the moment, views of Trump are starkly polarized. His approval ratings are historically low for a president at this point in his tenure. A Gallup poll this week put Trump’s approval at 43 percent.”
Nature is full of curiosities. Meet the giant salamander known as the ‘snot otter’: