Daily Bread for 9.26.17

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will see a likelihood of afternoon thundershowers with a high of eighty-five. Sunrise is 6:47 AM and sunset 6:43 PM, for 11h 55m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}three hundred twenty-first day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater municipal government has scheduled a public information meeting today on Construction and Resurfacing of WIS 59/Reconstruction Newcomb Street Intersection from 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1937, Orson Welles’s The Shadow radio program begins on the Mutual Broadcasting System. On this day in 1864, the 11th Wisconsin Infantry participates in an expedition from Napoleonville to Grand River and Bayou Pigeon, Louisiana.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ari Berman writes that A New Study Shows Just How Many Americans Were Blocked From Voting in Wisconsin Last Year:

A comprehensive study released today suggests how many missing votes can be attributed to the new law. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison surveyed registered voters who didn’t cast a 2016 ballot in the state’s two biggest counties—Milwaukee and Dane, which is home to Madison. More than 1 out of 10 nonvoters (11.2 percent) said they lacked acceptable voter ID and cited the law as a reason why they didn’t vote; 6.4 percent of respondents said the voter ID law was the “main reason” they didn’t vote.

The study’s lead author, University of Wisconsin political scientist Kenneth Mayer, says between roughly 9,000 and 23,000 registered voters in the reliably Democratic counties were deterred from voting by the ID law. Extrapolating statewide, he says the data suggests as many as 45,000 voters sat out the election. “We have hard evidence there were tens of thousands of people who were unable to vote because of the voter ID law,” Mayer told me.

The study, which was funded by Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, provides some of the firmest evidence yet that new restrictions on voting lead to voter disenfranchisement. It’s a strong rebuke to supporters of voter ID laws like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has claimed that the notion the voter ID law reduced participation is a “load of crap.” (Wisconsin saw its lowest turnout since 2000, and there were 41,000 fewer voters in Milwaukee compared with 2012.)

After the study’s release, McDonell and Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson joined together in calling for an immediate suspension of the law. “It is completely unacceptable that thousands of voters were deterred from exercising their sacred right to vote due to this law. Citizens’ basic belief in their democracy is seriously eroded when those in power target some for exclusion from self-government,” said McDonell….

Adam Entous, Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin report Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions:

The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African American rights groups, including Black Lives Matter, and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign.

The Russian campaign — taking advantage of Facebook’s ability to send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics — also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women.

These targeted messages, along with others that have surfaced in recent days, highlight the sophistication of an influence campaign slickly crafted to mimic and infiltrate U.S. political discourse while also seeking to heighten tensions between groups already wary of one another.

(Putin’s bots and trolls aim to divide Americans, turning members of our free society against each other; Trump tries the same each day, ceaselessly fomenting tension within our society.)

Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman report that At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts: