Daily Bread for 9.6.18

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will see a mix of clouds and sun, with a high of seventy-two.  Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 7:19 PM, for 12h 53m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 14% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets this evening at 6 PM.

On this day in 1976, Soviet fighter pilot Viktor Belenko defects to Japan:

Belenko was born in Nalchik, Russian SFSR, in a Ukrainian family. Lieutenant Belenko was a pilot with the 513th Fighter Regiment, 11th Air Army, Soviet Air Defence Forces based in Chuguyevka, Primorsky Krai. On 6 September 1976, he successfully defected to the West, flying his MiG-25 “Foxbat” jet fighter to Hakodate, Japan.[2]

This was the first time that Western experts were able to get a close look at the aircraft, and it revealed many secrets and surprises. His defection caused significant damage to the Soviet Air Force.[3] Belenko was granted asylum by U.S. President Gerald Ford, and a trust fund was set up for him, granting him a very comfortable living in later years. The U.S. Government debriefed him for five months after his defection, and employed him as a consultant for several years thereafter. Belenko had brought with him the pilot’s manual for the MiG-25 “Foxbat”, expecting to assist U.S. pilots in evaluating and testing the aircraft.

Recommended for reading in full — 

  All America’s pondering a New York Times op-ed entitled I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration:

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

(Candidly, I don’t know what to make of this op-ed, except to say that from my own view there is a broad resistance to Trump, much more than only ‘from the left,’ and that in any event those within this administration look more like collaborators than members of the resistance.

One is reminded of a line from the musical Hamilton: “If there’s a fire you’re trying to douse, you can’t put it out from inside the house.” Indeed. This does show, however, how much a failure Trump is at what he does.)

  Craig Gilbert and Patrick Marley report Former Gov. Tommy Thompson says he regrets his part in the Wisconsin prison building boom:

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the author of a new memoir, has done many things in public life he’s very proud of.

But among his regrets, he said Wednesday, is getting caught up decades ago in the “hysteria” of locking people up. He wishes he hadn’t built so many prisons.

“We lock up too many people for too long. It’s about time we change the dynamics. I apologize for that,” Thompson, the state’s Republican governor from 1987 to 2001, said at the Marquette University Law School.

….

Thompson did not criticize Walker directly over the issue Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t say he’s wrong. It’s just that I have matured over the years and I’ve seen the prison systems inside and out. … I’ve studied it. The way we warehouse prisoners right now is not the right way. … Some people have to be in prison, there is no question about it. But we have too many people locked up that should be rehabilitated, retrained and allowed to get out and take a job. We need the workers,” Thompson told reporters after the Marquette event. He said he has made his case to Walker on the subject.

(Emphasis added.  Thompson’s saying Walker’s wrong without saying the mere words ‘Walker’s wrong.’)

  PolitiFact concludes McCabe hits the mark on Minnesota vs. Wisconsin prison rates:

  The Committee to Investigate Russia writes British Police Name Spy Poisoning Suspects:

British authorities have charged two Russian military intelligence officers in the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England last March.

The Guardian:

Police said the two men were travelling on authentic Russian passports under the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and arrived in the UK on an Aeroflot flight days before the attack. The Crown Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence to charge them.

The prime minister, Theresa May, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the two men had been identified as officers from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.

The CPS said it had charged the two men with conspiracy to murder the Skripals and DS Nick Bailey, who fell ill after going to the Skripal home after the Russian pair were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury.

The two Russian suspects are also charged with the use and possession of novichok, contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act. They are also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia Skripal and DS Bailey.

They have not been charged with the later poisoning that killed Dawn Sturgess and left Charlie Rowley seriously ill, after they became unwell on 30 June at an address in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

However, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has concluded the novichok that killed Sturgess and poisoned Rowley was the same as that used on the Skripals.

So, What was the First Horror Movie?: