Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will see a mix of clouds and sun, an occasional thunderstorm, and a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:29 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 01m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
It’s Bastille Day:
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year. In French, it is formally called la Fête Nationale….
The French National Day is the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789,[1][2] a turning point of the French Revolution,[4] as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790. Celebrations are held throughout France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, along with other French officials and foreign guests.[5][6]
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In the debate leading up to the adoption of the holiday, Henri Martin, chairman of the French Senate, addressed that chamber on 29 June 1880:
Do not forget that behind this 14 July, where victory of the new era over the ancien régime was bought by fighting, do not forget that after the day of 14 July 1789, there was the day of 14 July 1790 … This [latter] day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood, for having divided the country. It was the consecration of the unity of France … If some of you might have scruples against the first 14 July, they certainly hold none against the second. Whatever difference which might part us, something hovers over them, it is the great images of national unity, which we all desire, for which we would all stand, willing to die if necessary.
— Henri Martin, Chairman of the Sénat, 1880[17]
Recommended for reading in full —
Autumn Brewington, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Matthew Kahn, Katherine Kelley, Shannon Togawa Mercer, Matt Tait, and Benjamin Wittes write Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment:
The timing of the indictment given the upcoming Helsinki summit is a powerful show of strength by federal law enforcement. Let’s presume that Mueller did not time this indictment to precede the summit by way of embarrassing Trump on the international stage. It is enough to note that he also did not hold off on the indictment for a few days by way of sparing Trump embarrassment—and that Rosenstein did not force him to. Indeed, Rosenstein said at his press conference that it is “important for the president to know what information was uncovered because he has to make very important decisions for the country” and therefore “he needs to know what evidence there is of foreign election interference.” But of course Rosenstein and Mueller did not just let Trump know. They also let the world know, which has the effect—intended or not—of boxing in the president as he meets with an adversary national leader.
Put less delicately: Rosenstein has informed the president, and the world, before Trump talks to Putin one-on-one that his own Justice Department is prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in public, using admissible evidence, that the president of the Russian Federation has been lying to Trump about Russian non-involvement in the 2016 election hacking.
Here are the indictment and the Justice Department’s accompanying press release.
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[embeddoc url=”https://freewhitewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/netyksho_et_al_indictment.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
Philip Rucker writes After being told of Russia indictments, Trump still aspired to be friends with Putin:
HELSINKI — Before he embarked on a week of transatlantic diplomacy, President Trump sat down with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who previewed for the boss an explosive development: The Justice Department would soon indict 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic emails to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
For the first time, the United States would be charging Russian government agents with planning and executing a sustained cyberattack to disrupt America’s democratic process. Yet Trump gave no sign in his commentary in Europe this week that he appreciated the magnitude of what he had been told was coming.
Instead, he repeated his frequent attacks on the integrity of the wide-ranging Russia probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — while offering kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he is slated to meet here in Helsinki on Monday.
Trump said Putin should not be considered his enemy but rather his competitor — and after spending some time together here in this vibrant seaside Nordic capital, Trump said he hoped they might quickly become friends.
Jennifer Cohn writes Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), who went to Russia this past July 4 and says we should overlook Russia’s election meddling, enjoyed one of the most surprising election wins of 2016 after Russia compromised his state’s election system [from a longer series of points]:
4. But Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin suggested upon his return that the U.S. has gone too far in punishing Russia for its election meddling:
“I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference—as serious as that was, and unacceptable—is not the greatest threat to our democracy … We’ve blown it way out of proportion.” (Id.)
5. “Johnson elaborated on his position in a Monday interview with WOSH-AM radio, in which he said there were more serious threats” and that it’s “very difficult to really meddle in our elections. It just is. These are locally run, it’s almost impossible to change the vote tally.”
6. Johnson is wrong. As explained in the July 2017 congressional testimony of Computer Science Professor Alex Halderman, “hacking a national election in the United States would be, well, shockingly easy.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD3qqBfU0no
7. According to a recent study by Penn Wharton (University of Pennsylvania, just two vendors — Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Dominion Voting — account for about 80% of U.S. election equipment. https://trustthevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-whartonoset_industryreport.pdf
21. Senator Johnson of Wisconsin, however, may have an incentive to deny the vulnerability of U.S. elections to meddling by Russia or even domestic actors.
22. During the 2015–16 election cycle, the Political Action Committee for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker accepted $1.1 million “from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.”
(Emphasis in original.)
Craig Gilbert observes GOP senate primary in Wisconsin already reflects north-south divide within party:
The fight to pick a Republican nominee against U.S. Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin is playing out along a familiar GOP fault line in Wisconsin.
North versus South.
In GOP primary polls this year, state Sen. Leah Vukmir is leading by double-digits in populous southeast Wisconsin, her home turf. Marine Corps veteran and first-time candidate Kevin Nicholson is well ahead in the rest of Wisconsin, especially the rural north and west.
If this schism sounds familiar by now, there’s a reason. It was a defining feature of the state’s past three Republican presidential primaries and the GOP primary for governor that launched Scott Walker in 2010.
Lilac is on the Road to Recovery:
Watching the shit-show that was the Strzok inquisition was illustrative. Goodlatte, Gohmert, Gowdy and Jim “Paterno” Johnson were in high dudgeon. Perhaps a better term is high panic. They had to know what Mueller was going to throw down and did their best to kick up some dust. They looked totally craven doing it, but these are desperate times. It was as loathsome a performance as I have ever seen in congress.
Mueller’s timing is exquisite, what with Trump doing his little private tea party with Putin on deck. Dropping the conspiracy indictments yesterday was no accident. It was a direct shot at Trump. Meanwhile, unveiling the Hailest of Marys, Mark Meadows and Jim Johnson (taking time off from explaining why he spent 15 years enabling a sexual predator) are preparing impeachment papers on Rod Rosenstein, to be filed next week. It won’t go anywhere, but isn’t designed to do anything but give Trump an excuse to fire Rosenstein. It will be interesting to see who backs the ploy. I’m guessing Ryan won’t have much to say, as he is busy getting ready to spend more time with his family.
It’s about to get real, and I suspect that it will be real soon, too. Trump‘s options are rapidly narrowing to decapitating the justice department and declaring martial law, or resigning. I would not bet on the latter. The reek of the mist forming over the Potomac is not that of new-mowed hay, but rather that of vaporized White house flop-sweat condensing on the cold, hard, reality of what is about to land on Trump and his little elves.
It is interesting to watch the beatification of the FBI going on right now. It is good to remember a couple of things. J. Edgar Hoover had his way with generations of American presidents way before any piss-tape. And…we would not be where we are now without the NY FBI Hillary-haters stampeding Comey into blowing up her election.
The latest indictments also highlight another interesting issue. The level of detail in the indictment, and the widespread location of the perps, make one thing perfectly clear: Every piece of electronic communication by anyone in anyplace in the world, is monitored and recorded. This isn’t speculation, as the NSA has copped to it. Mueller obviously has access to this information. If that does not make republican blood run cold, they are not paying attention. The next set of indictments will be the mother of all political bombs.
Good morning. Key points all around. There are, and always have been, proven concerns about law enforcement overreach, with many of those concerns have been set aside in response to the GOP’s say-anything tactics to get past November in something like one piece. No doubt, GOP attacks are sheer opportunism; after this national conflict ends, we’ll still have to go on, and go on with a vigilant concern about enforcement overreach. Trumpism overreaches when it wants, while simultaneously making scrutiny of overreach elsewhere more difficult. Trump’s lack of reason makes the application of reason both more necessary and more difficult.
While one reads that Trump professes to doubt that Russian electoral interference mattered or matters, there’s no reason to take him at his word. Although he lies repeatedly, he most surely knows that Russian interference mattered, will matter if unchecked in 2018, and has and will always benefit him. He’s not truly indifferent; he’s a grateful recipient.
Ryan: what it looks like when only the exoskeleton remains.
Impeaching Rosenstein: agreed, it’s a pretext to try to fire him. Those who’d like to impeach and fire him, are, almost to an individual, among the worst politicians in America. Personally immoral, corrupt, or ignorant, there’s not one of that group (Goodlatte, Gohmert, Gowdy and Jim “Paterno” Johnson) that one would trust to dog sit, let alone care for a child or vulnerable adult. (Jim “Paterno” Johnson: spot-on.)
These are strange, dangerous times, and even a century from now historians will ponder how low America descended under Trump.
David Ignatius, in the WaPo, elaborates a bit on what I ranted on above:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/07/15/putin-must-wonder-what-else-america-knows-about-russia/?utm_term=.9c6e427de071
This indictment has been a fascinating look at just how much we know about not just the Russians, but everyone else, too. What will be fascinating, look ahead, is how much of that gets revealed. The implication is that Mueller has it all, if he has that much on Russians, located half a world away. The entire Republican party has to be reviewing its sins right about now. I’m thinking that this has just started to get interesting.
Thanks very much for this pointer – I had not seen Ignatius’s article. The premise seems sound: that there’s more now known than yet revealed. Trump’s denials look increasingly childish. I would argue for the greatest possible release of information: we have a right to see what the GOP is fighting so hard to deny.