Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-two. Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:26 PM, for 15h 07m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 39.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}two hundred fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1889, the Johnstown Flood devastates the area near Johnston, Pennsylvania: “The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water [3] (16 million US tons) from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled that of the Mississippi River,[4] the flood killed 2,209 people[5] and caused US$17 million of damage (about $450 million in 2015 dollars).” On this day in 1899, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill found the Gideons International.
Recommended for reading in full —
Matt Lewis explains Why [Some] Conservatives Won’t Dance to the ‘Dear Leader Donald Trump’ Tune:
In a statement that might have made Kim Jong Un blush, White House spokesperson Hope Hicks extolled the virtues of President Donald Trump in a statement to The Washington Post this week.
“President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him.”
She continued: “He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000.”
But wait. There’s more. “He is brilliant with a great sense of humor,” said Hicks, “and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.”
More than one observer on Twitter noted the resemblance to “Dear Leader” propaganda from North Korea. They have a point. According to biographers, the late Kim Jong Il’s birth was “foretold by a swallow and heralded by a double rainbow. When he was born, a new star appeared in the night sky.”
….Trump supporters, it seems to me, are more disposed to prize authoritarian traits like loyalty and hierarchy. For these Trump apologists, the analogies never end. He is our general. Sometimes he’s our daddy. Sometimes he’s our CEO. Whether it’s paternalistic, militaristic, or capitalistic, there are numerous ways to be subservient to him. Pick your favorite!
Jenna Johnson, in Trump’s aides are starting to rival their boss when it comes to praising him, observes what Lewis does:
….this approach often forces aides to make outlandish claims that simply draw attention to the weak points of Trump’s trip or time in office instead of the highlights, said Mike Murphy, a longtime GOP consultant who ran the political action committee for Jeb Bush’s failed presidential campaign. He compared the exaggerations to North Korean propaganda.
“It’s insecure, over-the-top,” Murphy said. “I call it Great Leader-esque.”
Tommy Vietor, who was a spokesman for President Barack Obama, said former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs once gave him this advice: “The first rule of spin is that it has to be believable.”
The claims coming from Trump’s spokespeople just are not, and saying the words out loud makes Spicer, and others, “look like an idiot,” Vietor said.
“It’s baffling, because it doesn’t convince anyone. It doesn’t serve anyone to insist that black is white, that down is up, or that Donald Trump is this warm and fuzzy guy,” Vietor said, referring to Hicks’s statement. “I mean, his tag line is: ‘You’re fired.’ ”
(It’s only a matter of time before his swooning admirers start wearing masks of his face when he marches by.)
Matthew Nussbaum, Josh Dawsey, and Eliana Johnson report that Trump’s obsession over Russia probe deepens:
President Donald Trump has been aggressively working the phones since returning this weekend from his foreign trip, talking to friends and outside lawyers as he obsesses over the deepening investigations into his aides and Russia.
Two White House officials said Trump and some aides including Steve Bannon are becoming increasingly convinced that they are victims of a conspiracy against Trump’s presidency, as evidenced by the number of leaks flowing out of government — that the crusade by the so-called “deep state” is a legitimate threat, not just fodder for right wing defenders.
Hannah Levintova outlines Hacks, Leaks, and Tweets: Everything We Now Know About the Attack on the 2016 Election:
The drumbeat of revelations over the past several weeks has been overwhelming. So we’ve created this timeline—from the hacking of the Democratic National Committee through the aftermath of Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey—to help you follow this scandal threatening the presidency [chronology follows]….
In Washington, Kevin Ambrose offers a challenge to Read if you dare: Cicada horror stories:
The screams were heard by everyone in the Fair Lakes parking lot. A woman, bent over at the waist, was thrashing her torso back and forth while slapping at the back of her head and shoulders, screaming and gasping for air at the same time.
Two men rushed to help. One man quickly noticed what was terrifying the woman — a cicada had become tangled in her hair and was flipping and bouncing against the back of her neck. The bug was making quite a commotion, beating its wings rapidly while emitting a loud, buzzing noise with its tymbals.
The man carefully pulled the large insect out of the woman’s hair and held it out to show her. “Look, it’s only a cicada,” he said. The woman reeled back with horror and exclaimed, “How can you touch that thing?!” Then she quickly walked to her car, muttering, “I’m never going outside again.”
(A bit of heartfelt advice: Go outside, often – the natural world is astonishing in beauty and diversity.)