Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 5:23 AM and sunset 8:20 PM, for 14h 57m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent today with 2.3% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred ninety-seventh day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge opens for traffic. On this day in 1864, the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 36th Wisconsin Infantry regiments participate in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.
Recommended for reading in full —
Michael Grynbaum and Daniel Victor report that Fox News Retracts Story Linking Murder of D.N.C. Aide to 2016 Presidential Campaign:
Fox News on Tuesday retracted a story linking the murder of a Democratic National Committee staff member with the email hacks that aided President Trump’s campaign, effectively quashing a conspiracy theory that had taken hold across the right-wing news media.
It was a rare acknowledgment of error by the network. But it also underscored a schism between the network’s news-gathering operation and one of its biggest stars: the conservative commentator Sean Hannity, who has unapologetically promoted the theory and remained defiant on Tuesday.
“These are questions that I have a moral obligation to ask,” Mr. Hannity said on his radio show, shortly after Fox News announced its mistake. “All you in the liberal media — I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com. I retracted nothing.”
(Hannity later said on his evening television program of 5.23.17 that “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.”)
Jennifer Rubin poses Questions Fox and the right need to answer:
What is this “high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting”? Who is responsible for maintaining such high standards?
Does the alleged high scrutiny apply to Fox’s nighttime shows?
How did the story manage to slip by this exacting scrutiny?
How did it remain on the website and on Hannity’s show despite widespread calls to cease airing a debunked story?
Who, if anyone, is going to be held accountable for this?
Will Fox real-news cover the incident?
How did widespread coverage of birtherism slip by Fox’s “high degree of editorial scrutiny”?
Are evening shows’ coverage of the Russia scandal subjected to a “high degree of editorial scrutiny”?
Binyamin Applebaum describes Trump’s Problematic Math: Budget Plan Adds Growth, but Doesn’t Subtract Cost:
When the government cuts taxes, it collects less money. That is the purpose of a tax cut. But Mr. Trump’s budget does not include any hint of a downturn in federal revenue. To the contrary, it projects that federal tax revenue will increase every year for the next decade.
The White House is indeed projecting faster economic growth as a consequence of tax cuts. What it is not doing is projecting the cost of those tax cuts, that is, the loss in tax revenue. It is the rough equivalent of trying to raise $10,000 for a project expected to produce $100,000 in revenue, and telling investors the profit will total $100,000. It won’t be, because you have to account for the cost.
Lawrence H. Summers, the Harvard economist who served in senior roles in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, writing for The Washington Post, declared it “the most egregious accounting error in a presidential budget in the nearly 40 years I have been tracking them.”
Matt Valazquez reports on John Hammond leaving Bucks to become [Orlando] Magic GM:
Hammond’s hiring came on the heels of Orlando’s announcement Tuesday morning that it had hired Weltman as its president of basketball operations, a position that Hammond also had applied for according to multiple reports. Weltman and Hammond worked together in Detroit for a year before Hammond took the GM job in Milwaukee in 2008 and brought Weltman with him as his assistant general manager. Weltman left for Toronto in 2013 and was promoted to the GM job there before last season.
Someone enjoyed a trip in a cycling jersey:
This bike ride became a KITTEN RESCUE. pic.twitter.com/xxUff74qxR
— The Dodo (@dodo) May 23, 2017