Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-nine. Sunrise is 5:32 AM and sunset 8:29 PM, for 14h 57m 29s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.7% of its visible disk illuminated.Today is the nine hundred eighty-first day.
On this day in 1832, during the Black Hawk War, General Atkinson writes General Winfield Scott that he has finished constructing Fort Koshkonong.
Recommended for reading in full:
Daniel Dale reports Trump makes 13 false claims in Cabinet meeting:
President Donald Trump uttered a rapid series of false claims, at least 13 in all, during his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. He made another claim for which there is no public evidence, and he offered positive words about an ally’s accusation for which there is no public evidence.
Fred Barbash writes Trump’s racist comments can be used against him in court as judges cite them to block policies:
President Trump’s latest racist remarks, like many of his comments before them, can and will be used against him in court.
And if his losing record on immigration cases is any guide, they will be used effectively.
In conjunction with other factors, they could help persuade judges to block policies he claims are crucial to his agenda, particularly on immigration, on the grounds of racial or ethnic animus.
That’s been the pattern ever since Trump took office.
His words — about Mexican immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers” and “rapists,” Nigerians going back “to their huts,” Haitians all having AIDS, or of too many migrants from “shithole countries” — have helped stall much of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
It hasn’t been any particular comment that has made the difference in court but rather the accumulation of them.
Watch this diver stumble upon a jellyfish as big as she is:
Lizzie Daly was diving Saturday off the coast of Cornwall in Britain when she saw something large in the distance and did a double take. Daly had seen a barrel jellyfish before but nothing of this size.
Daly, a biologist and broadcaster, swam up to the peach-colored creature gliding through the water, as cameraman Dan Abbott captured the encounter.
“We weren’t expecting anything,” Daly said. “It was an absolute delight to get that experience.”
Abbott and Daly were diving as part of Wild Ocean Week, a fundraising campaign for the Marine Conservation Society of the United Kingdom created by Daly, that was meant to document various marine species off the coast.
“My first reaction was that I’ve never seen a jellyfish that size in my life,” Abbott said. Then, he was focused on staying out of its way and attempting to capture a video of the “beautiful, majestic, slow-moving, graceful animal.”
There is an interesting take on Walker’s coronation as President of YAF, from never-trumper, former YAF member, and current Sr. Editor at The Bulwark, Jim Swift: https://thebulwark.com/can-scott-walker-save-the-future-of-conservatism/
One thing he explains, which had me wondering, was why this was being announced now for a gig starting in a year-and-a-half. Apparently there is a schism in the campus conservative youth brigades between the neo-paleo Young America Foundation types and the significantly harder-core Turning Point USA folks, and appointing Walker now was a tactical move. It certainly sounds like those groups are doing some serious gnawing on each other’s ankles.
It was also announced today that Trump had appointed Walker to the board of the Woodrow Wilson International Center of Scholars at the Smithsonian. Not bad for a Marquette drop-out, eh?
Wingnut Welfare has no bounds….
Thanks much for this link – it’s a good article (from an author who’s knowledgeable, although admittedly sympathetic, to the YAF).
It’s hard for me to see how Walker will build YAF up, although Swift’s suggestions are practical ones. A Trumpist rival to YAF doesn’t need practicality – at least for now – so long as that rival has the shiver of excitement that comes from fanatical, boundary-breaking bigotry.
Perhaps YAF sees something in Walker that others don’t.
Nutty – Walker appointed to a position for scholarship (of any kind).
My youngest remarked on my use of the expression ‘honest to goodness,’ recently. I’d not considered much about the context of using it, until he overheard me use it about one political injustice or another. So he said, “Dad, you’re really upset, aren’t, you?”
I replied, “Why do you say that?”
He said, “Because you said ‘honest to goodness,’ and that means something bad happened.”
Well, yes: something bad, infuriating, or absurd.
Walker connected to scholarship?
Honest to goodness.