Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy, with scattered thunderstorms, and a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 19m 46s of daytime.  The moon is full with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1947, Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Reid J. Epstein reports Michigan Republicans Debunk Voter Fraud Claims in Unsparing Report:

A committee led by Michigan Republicans on Wednesday published an extraordinary debunking of voter fraud claims in the state, delivering a comprehensive rebuke to a litany of accusations about improprieties in the 2020 election and its aftermath.

The 55-page report, produced by a Michigan State Senate committee of three Republicans and one Democrat, is a systematic rebuttal to an array of false claims about the election from supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. The authors focus overwhelmingly on Michigan, but they also expose lies perpetuated about the vote-counting process in Georgia.

The report is unsparing in its criticism of those who have promoted false theories about the election. It debunks claims from Trump allies including Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer; and Mr. Trump himself.

Yet while the report eviscerates claims about election fraud, its authors also use the allegations to urge their legislative colleagues to change Michigan’s voting laws to make absentee voting harder and limit the availability of drop boxes for absentee ballots, as Republicans have done in other swing states as they try to limit voting.

William G. Gale and Darrell M. West write Make Election Day a national holiday: 

As Congress continues to grapple with voting rights legislation this week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has used his considerable influence as the Senate’s key swing vote to set the terms of the debate. Last week his office released a list of voting rights provisions he would support. At the top of his list: making Election Day a national holiday. Without this simple step toward turning out as many Americans as possible to vote, any reform will be incomplete.

So far this year, hundreds of bills have been introduced that could have the effect of suppressing people’s right to vote. States such as Georgia and Iowa already have passed restrictive measures and many others appear poised to do the same thing. These efforts challenge fundamental values of American democracy and constitute a serious threat to the “one person, one vote” principle.

Abigail Becker reports Madison nearing launch of mobile crisis response team: 

Madison is preparing to launch the city’s first mobile unit of unarmed first responders and mental health providers who will respond to people in a nonviolent, emergency mental health crisis by bringing interventions to them.

Ald. Arvina Martin, District 11, pushed the city to create the pilot program, called Community Alternative Response for Emergency Services or CARES. She said it could be “life changing.”

“I’m really really excited that we are taking some steps in order to make our treatments and how we address mental health emergencies in the city something that will provide better outcomes for them and hopefully not to involve the criminal justice system,” Martin said at a public input session on the program Tuesday.

The $600,000 pilot program will consist of two teams that each include a Madison Fire Department community paramedic and a mental health worker from Journey Mental Health. Though the long term vision is to operate the program 24/7 throughout Dane County, the teams will initially respond to nonviolent 911 mental health calls Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in downtown Madison.

 How quantum mechanics help birds find their way: 

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will see brief morning showers with a high of 77. Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 20m 02s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Tech Park Board meets at 8 AM.

On this day in 1942, Germany’s latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales: “Oberleutnant Armin Faber was a German Luftwaffe pilot in World War II who mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and landed his Focke-Wulf 190 (Fw 190) intact at RAF Pembrey in South Wales. His plane was the first Fw 190 to be captured by the Allies and was tested to reveal any weaknesses that could be exploited.” 

Recommended for reading in full — 

John Torinus writes New UW Regents Chair [Ed Manydeeds] Faces Challenges: 

The make-up of higher education has changed dramatically in the last decade. The new UW president will not be dealing with just bricks and mortar issues. His or her strategic plan, and those of the 13 campuses, will also have to factor in burgeoning trends and realities:

• High school graduates will arrive on campus with as much as a quarter of their required baccalaureate credits – already awarded from Advanced Placement courses in high school, online courses and dual enrollment in high school and college while still in high school.
• They will be debt conscious and will not want to take many courses that are non-essential to their career intentions.
• They will be accustomed to working online and won’t need to be on a physical campus for parts of some courses.
• The world of work will be clamoring for their services. They will be eager to get off campus for internships and for good-paying jobs. Students will be less oriented to party time.
• If Republicans continue to control the Legislature, new funds for the university will be meted out conservatively.
• Enrollments will continue to decline and tuition revenues will go down accordingly, even with modest tuition increases.
• Research dollars at UW–Madison have been falling off sharply in recent years.

Jeff Kao, Raymond Zhong, Paul Mozur, Aliza Aufrichtig, Nailah Morgan and Aaron Krolik report ‘We Are Very Free’: How China Spreads Its Propaganda Version of Life in Xinjiang: 

These and thousands of other videos are meant to look like unfiltered glimpses of life in Xinjiang, the western Chinese region where the Communist Party has carried out repressive policies against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.

Most of the clips carry no logos or other signs that they are official propaganda.

But taken together, the videos begin to reveal clues of broader coordination — such as the English subtitles in clips posted to YouTube and other Western platforms.

A monthslong analysis of more than 3,000 of the videos by The New York Times and ProPublica found evidence of an influence campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government.

The operation has produced and spread thousands of videos in which Chinese citizens deny abuses against their own communities and scold foreign officials and multinational corporations who dare question the Chinese government’s human rights record in Xinjiang.

It all amounts to one of China’s most elaborate efforts to shape global opinion.

….

Western platforms like Twitter and YouTube are banned in China out of fear they might be used to spread political messaging — which is exactly how Chinese officials are using these platforms in the rest of the world.

They are, in essence, high-speed propaganda pipelines for Beijing. In just a few days, videos establishing the Communist Party’s version of reality can be shot, edited and amplified across the global internet.

 Bear Caught Breaking Into Car in New Hampshire:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 20m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1943, future senator Joseph McCarthy breaks his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

Will Carless reports They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism: 

KENOSHA, Wis. — Daniel Berry says he was searching for camaraderie.

The 40-year-old Army veteran yearned to forge the sort of bonds he had in the military: a brotherhood of like-minded men watching one another’s backs, holding one another up, united in a common goal.

Last year, Berry said, he remembered a guy at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall asking him if he had heard of the Proud Boys. The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald Trump, whom Berry had voted for. They called themselves “Western chauvinists” and said they welcomed true men. That sounded about right for Berry, who considers himself a dyed-in-the-wool patriot.

He did some internet searches and sent off an email. Almost immediately, he received a link to an encrypted chat room.

And so began Berry’s journey into the dark world of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys.

Berry, along with a member of the Wisconsin Proud Boys and another former recruit, told USA TODAY the group is a den of racism and antisemitism. Moving up within the group, they said, is dependent on sadistically bullying potential members and promoting white supremacist talking points.

Berry and two other men, who asked not to be named because they fear violent repercussions from members ofthe Proud Boys, provided a unique view into an organization that has become a magnet for racists and violent extremists. They spoke and emailed with USA TODAY independently, providing screenshots of chatrooms, photos, memes and audio recordings that backed up their claims.

Their accounts reveal the face of a group that masks itself as a harmless, multiracial drinking club, one that reaches new members by preaching free speech and patriotism. At least in Wisconsin, the men said, the Proud Boys stands less for brotherhood and more for the racial hatred espoused by outmoded organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.

“Initially it was truly a brotherhood,” Berry said. “But what I experienced was more like a cult.”

Catherine Rampell writes Manchin got Republicans to admit to the ‘big lie.’ Democrats should celebrate: 

In a memo, Manchin proposed building upon parts of the For the People Act and a narrower bill, known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, with a few amendments. His proposal would make Election Day a public holiday, require two weeks of early voting, automatically register voters through motor vehicle departments and eliminate partisan gerrymandering. It’s not everything Democrats want — and has some oversights — but it addresses most of the party’s goals for promoting free and fair elections.

Perhaps more important, from a political standpoint: Manchin’s compromise completely undercuts Republicans’ case for blocking reform.

It does this by including new requirements to safeguard election security, which is — or was — the top priority of Republicans concerned by “questions” the 2020 election supposedly raised.

 Could 3D printed ivory save elephants?:

(The market solution here is to reduce the cost of production and increase the cultural demand preference for digitally-produced ivory over natural products.)

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see partly sunny skies with a high of 69. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 20m 21s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 10 AM, and Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1898, the United States captures Guam from Spain: “The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

Steven Erlanger and Michael D. Shear report U.S. and E.U. End Aviation Trade Spat and Turn to China’s Rise:

BRUSSELS — The United States and Europe on Tuesday agreed to put aside a 17-year dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus and work together to counter China’s global ambitions to dominate key industries.

The agreement, which suspends the threat of billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on each other’s economies for five years, is a clear sign of President Biden’s seriousness in repairing relations with the European Union and getting the wealthy bloc on his side in what he regards as a generational challenge from the rise of a technologically advanced and autocratic China.

Mr. Biden sees Europe as an ally, not an economic “foe” as former President Donald J. Trump did, and he has pledged to work with the European Union to counter China’s military, economic and technological ambitions. While Mr. Trump also saw the dangers of an unbound China, he did little to try to bring Europe along, instead punishing it with tariffs. Mr. Biden is convinced that, as Asia as a whole grows in population and wealth, the democratic world that believes in the rule of law and multilateral institutions must do more to protect its economies and values.

“Europe is our natural partner, and the reason is, we’re committed to the same democratic norms and institutions, and they are increasingly under attack,” Mr. Biden said during remarks in Brussels.

Claire Parker reports Global approval of the United States has rebounded under Biden, survey finds:

Trust in the U.S. president fell to historic lows in most countries surveyed during Donald Trump’s presidency, according to Pew.

Under Biden, it has soared. In the 12 countries surveyed both this year and last, a median of 75 percent of respondents expressed confidence in Biden to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” Pew found, compared with 17 percent for Trump last year. Sixty-two percent of respondents now have a favorable view of the United States vs. 34 percent at the end of Trump’s presidency.

“The election of Joe Biden as president has led to a dramatic shift in America’s international image,” the Pew report reads.

Elaine Dezenski and John C. Austin write Rebuilding America’s economy and foreign policy with ‘ally-shoring’:

There is a better way forward, and it starts by selectively leaning into our trade and co-production relationships with friends and allies we trust—what we call “ally-shoring.”

In announcing its strategy for supply chain resilience, the Biden White House recently embraced ally-shoring as the most realistic and effective path to ensuring U.S. supply chains are never as vulnerable as was exposed by COVID-19. It also is the best way to rebuild our economy and that of our friends, which strengthens the health of all our democracies. Additionally, working together to rewire supply chains and co-produce high-tech products in emerging sectors will serve to rebuild bruised alliances and U.S. global economic and political leadership, as well as check China’s bid to extend their own authoritarian economic and political model across the globe.

Dolphin Puts on Impromptu Underwater Show for Unsuspecting Scuba Diver:

Good morning.

Summer in Whitewater begins with partly sunny skies, scattered thundershowers, and a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 24s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1975, Jaws is released in the United States, starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

Jon Swaine and Emma Brown report ‘Italygate’ election conspiracy theory was pushed by two firms led by woman who also falsely claimed $30 million mansion was hers:

According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.

Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations [that push the claim] are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.

[Her] Institute for Good Governance’s registered headquarters since late last year has been the historical North Wales Farm, a 22-bedroom mansion in Warrenton, Va., state records show. The property is listed for sale at just under $30 million.

On the day after the 2020 election, Edwards sat for an interview at North Wales with a television crew from Iceland, where she has business interests. Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage. “This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”

She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.

“So this is where you live?” she was asked.

“Yes.”

“This is your property?”

“Yes.”

When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.

But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.

“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?”

The North Wales mansion was for sale at the time, and Edwards was a licensed Realtor in the area, according to the firm’s website. Hers was not the firm Ford’s widow had hired to sell the property.

Edwards declined to comment. “I am not giving media interviews at this time,” she said in a text message.

Joyce White Vance writes Garland inherited a booby-trapped DOJ. Here’s why it won’t be easy to fix:

Attorney General Merrick Garland knew he’d inherit some ticking time bombs when he took charge of the Justice Department. What he didn’t know, apparently, until the New York Times reported it this month, was that one of them was this: Under the Trump administration, the department subpoenaed Apple for information that included accounts belonging to Democratic members of Congress and their staff and families, and concealed that fact from them for almost four years.

….

It will take a top-to-bottom review of the Justice Department to root them out. And it has to happen fast.

The sheer scope of that review will be daunting. The Justice Department has an enormous docket of pending investigations and cases. In 2020, U.S. attorneys’ offices alone indicted in more than 57,000 criminal cases and handled 92,860 civil matters.

This French village has a statue, a song, and ceramics in cicadas’ honor:

According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.

Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations [that push the claim] are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.

[Her] Institute for Good Governance’s registered headquarters since late last year has been the historical North Wales Farm, a 22-bedroom mansion in Warrenton, Va., state records show. The property is listed for sale at just under $30 million.

On the day after the 2020 election, Edwards sat for an interview at North Wales with a television crew from Iceland, where she has business interests. Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage. “This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”

She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.

“So this is where you live?” she was asked.

“Yes.”

“This is your property?”

“Yes.”

When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.

But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.

“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?”

The North Wales mansion was for sale at the time, and Edwards was a licensed Realtor in the area, according to the firm’s website. Hers was not the firm Ford’s widow had hired to sell the property.

Edwards declined to comment. “I am not giving media interviews at this time,” she said in a text message.

Joyce White Vance writes Garland inherited a booby-trapped DOJ. Here’s why it won’t be easy to fix:

Attorney General Merrick Garland knew he’d inherit some ticking time bombs when he took charge of the Justice Department. What he didn’t know, apparently, until the New York Times reported it this month, was that one of them was this: Under the Trump administration, the department subpoenaed Apple for information that included accounts belonging to Democratic members of Congress and their staff and families, and concealed that fact from them for almost four years.

….

It will take a top-to-bottom review of the Justice Department to root them out. And it has to happen fast.

The sheer scope of that review will be daunting. The Justice Department has an enormous docket of pending investigations and cases. In 2020, U.S. attorneys’ offices alone indicted in more than 57,000 criminal cases and handled 92,860 civil matters.

This French village has a statue, a song, and ceramics in cicadas’ honor:

Good morning.

Juneteenth in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 23s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger announces emancipation to the people of Texas:

Despite the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the western Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2. On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston, Texas, to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its slaves and oversee a peaceful transition of power, additionally nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers. The Texas Historical Commission and Galveston Historical Foundation report that Granger’s men marched throughout Galveston reading General Order No. 3 first at Union Army Headquarters at the Osterman Building (formerly at the intersection of Strand Street and 22nd Street, since demolished), in the Strand Historic District. Next they marched to the 1861 Customs House and Courthouse before finally marching to the Negro Church on Broadway, since renamed Reedy Chapel-AME Church. The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves were free:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

(Citations omitted.)

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein report She Was a Black Election Official in Georgia. Then Came New G.O.P. Rules:

Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town.

But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board, the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Previously, election board members were selected by both political parties, county commissioners and the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to restructure the board and appoint all the new members.

“I speak out and I know the laws,” Ms. Hollis said in an interview. “The bottom line is they don’t like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they’re doing, because they know they can’t influence them.”

Ms. Hollis is not alone. Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature. At least five are people of color and most are Democrats — though some are Republicans — and they will most likely all be replaced by Republicans.

Professor Chantal Mathieu describes The Discovery of Insulin:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 92. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 18s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 53.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1815, the Battle of Waterloo results in Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Philip Bump writes Expanding broadband would benefit red America more than blue:

It’s probably inadvertent, but the national map of broadband need published by the White House on Thursday offers an extra layer of information beyond its detailed look at Internet access in the United States. Those areas that are in greatest need of broadband are displayed in red, accidentally elevating another quality most share: They largely voted for Donald Trump in 2020.

The Census Bureau collects data on technology adoption across the country, releasing assessments of how common computer ownership or Internet access is at the state, county and Census tract level. If we compare the density of households without any type of computer (including smartphones) or broadband access to how a country voted in 2020, we see that Trump-voting counties are overrepresented in both groups.

 Valerie Wirtschafter writes How George Floyd changed the online conversation around BLM:

On July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. Immediately, several Twitter users aired their disappointment and reminded the world of a simple truth: Black Lives Matter. Their tweets marked some of the first uses of a hashtag that would enter the mainstream a year later, on November 25, 2014, when a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown—and protesters online and off turned to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to express their anger and grief. As police violence has persisted and the movement for racial justice continues, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has emerged as an enduring feature of online discourse. As of April 30, 2021, it has been used in more than 25 million original Twitter posts, which collectively have garnered approximately 444 billion likes, retweets, comments, or quotes—roughly 17,000 engagements per post.[1]

Since Floyd’s murder, this online activism has only accelerated. In the seven days between his death on May 25, 2020, and the police attack on protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag generated approximately 3.4 million original posts with 69 billion engagements—or roughly 13% of all posts and 15.5% of all engagements on Twitter in that period. #BlackLivesMatter content peaked on June 8, with some 1.2 million original posts mentioning the hashtag. This marked an astonishing increase in use of the hashtag: Prior to the June protests, the record for posts had been July 8, 2016, following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, when original content reached 145,631 posts with an average of 7.4 engagements per post.

Figure 1 plots this dramatic increase in use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, alongside markers of milestones in the movement. Following Floyd’s murder, posts increased exponentially and previous spikes in content barely register in comparison. The figure also plots use of #BlueLivesMatter, a hashtag movement expressing support for the police and that, here, illustrates the disparity in interest between the two hashtags. Between 2013 and 2021, #BlueLivesMatter has registered 1.6 million original posts and 1.7 billion engagements (about 1,000 per post), which while smaller in scope than #BlackLivesMatter, is not insignificant. Use of the two hashtag movements appear to rise and fall together.

Figure 1: Total Original #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Posts

Australia: First a mouse plague, now a spider plague: