Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with afternoon showers and evening snowfall, and a high of thirty-five.  Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:46 PM, for 9h 23m 47s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.11% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1952, NBC’s long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Drew Harwell, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Razzan Nakhlawi, and Craig Timberg report QAnon reshaped Trump’s party and radicalized believers. The Capitol siege may just be the start:

The siege on the U.S. Capitol played out as a QAnon fantasy made real: The faithful rose up in their thousands, summoned to Washington by their leader, President Trump. They seized the people’s house as politicians cowered under desks. Hordes wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the “Q” symbol and toting Trump flags closed in to deliver justice, armed with zip-tie handcuffs and rope and guns.

The “#Storm” envisioned on far-right message boards had arrived. And two women who had died in the rampage — both QAnon devotees — had become what some were calling the first martyrs of the cause.

The siege ended with police retaking the Capitol and Trump being rebuked and losing his Twitter account. But the failed insurrection illustrated how the paranoid conspiracy theory QAnon has radicalized Americans, reshaped the Republican Party and gained a forceful grip on right-wing belief.

The baseless conspiracy theory, which imagines Trump in a battle with a cabal of deep-state saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex, helped drive the day’s events and facilitate organized attacks. A pro-Trump mob overwhelmed Capitol Police officers, injuring dozens, and one officer later died as a result. One woman was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol. Three others in the crowd died of medical emergencies.

QAnon devotees joined with extremist group members and white supremacists at the Capitol assault after finding one another on Internet sanctuaries: the conservative forums of TheDonald.win and Parler; the anonymous extremist channels of 8kun and Telegram; and the social media giants of Facebook and Twitter, which have scrambled in recent months to prevent devotees from organizing on their sites.

Alan Feuer and Luke Broadwater report More Arrests Made Amid New Calls for Investigation of Capitol Attack:

Led by Representative Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat and former Navy pilot, more than 30 lawmakers called on Wednesday for an investigation into visitors’ access to the Capitol on the day before the riot. In a letter to the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the U.S. Capitol Police, the lawmakers, many of whom served in the military and said they were trained to “recognize suspicious activity,” demanded answers about what they described as an “extremely high number of outside groups” let into the Capitol on Jan. 5 at a time when most tours were restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Separately, the inspector general’s office of the Capitol Police said it was opening a potentially wide-ranging inquiry into security breaches connected to the siege. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog agency, signaled that it would look into what role, if any, members of Congress may have played in inciting the mob of Trump supporters who breached metal barricades and shattered windows on Jan. 6, seeking to overturn the results of the election.

How Covid-19 Accelerated the Rise of Ghost Kitchens:

Ghost kitchens are kitchens designed for delivery-only businesses, without dine-in areas or customer-facing storefronts. The pandemic has ravaged dine-in eateries, and companies that have focused on delivery could come out on top if the current trends continue.

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be overcast with a high of thirty-six.  Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 4:45 PM, for 9h 22m 09s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

 The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets via audiovisual conferencing at 10:00 AM, the city’s Parks and Recreation Board via audiovisual conferencing at 5:30 PM, and the Police and Fire Commission via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1922, the call letters of experimental station 9XM in Madison were replaced by WHA. This station dates back to 1917, making it “the oldest station in the nation.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Peter Stone reports Lawyers face fallout from fueling Trump’s false claims of election fraud:

Prominent lawyers who helped fuel Donald Trump’s baseless charges of election fraud to try and thwart Joe Biden’s win, are now facing potentially serious legal and financial problems of their own tied to their aggressive echoing of Trump’s false election claims, say former Department of Justice lawyers and legal experts.

They include a federal investigation into the Capitol attack by a pro-Trump mob, possible disbarment and a defamation lawsuit.

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who led Trump’s conspiratorial drive to overturn the election and gave an incendiary talk to the Trump rally right before the march on the Capitol began, could be ensnared in a federal probe of the attack and is facing a disbarment complaint in New York.

Pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Cleta Mitchell have, respectively, been hit with a defamation lawsuit for making false claims, and losing her law firm post after coming under scrutiny for her work promoting Trump’s false claims.

Tia Sewell writes Trump’s War on the U.S. Agency for Global Media:

When the Biden administration takes office on Jan. 20, one place that will likely see quick and decisive change is the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)—a little-known agency that has seen a tumultuous few months.

The agency’s mandate is to promote unbiased news in support of freedom and democracy abroad. But this year, Michael Pack—the Trump-appointed CEO of the USAGM—attempted to purge the organization of career officials, censor criticisms of President Trump and withhold congressionally appropriated funding from a subsidiary of the media organization. Pack’s moves have continued to stoke fear over the White House’s mismanagement and attempted politicization of the federal agency intended to promote independent and credible journalism.

Or so say, anyway, a series of judicial rulings and administrative findings. Last week alone, Pack was confronted with three separate allegations of fraud and misuse of office. Prior to that, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel—an independent federal investigative body with no connection to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller—disclosed that it has found “a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” under Pack’s leadership at the USAGM. And on Nov. 20, 2020, in the most recent ruling in a series of legal blows dealt to Pack, Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia prohibited Pack and his USAGM board of executives from continuing activities that violate the First Amendment rights of journalists and editorial employees at Voice of America, which is overseen by the USAGM.

The USAGM is an independent federal agency composed of five news organizations: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Its stated mission is to align U.S. national interests with global media, “to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”

Can astronauts drink alcohol on the space station?:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be overcast with a high of thirty.  Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 4:43 PM, for 9h 20m 33s of daytime.  The moon is new with 0.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets via audiovisual conferencing at 6 PM.

On this day in 1932, Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Tim Craig, Holly Bailey, and Matt Zapotosky report State capitals face threat of armed protests, FBI warns:

On Saturday, heavily armed demonstrators surrounded the Kentucky Capitol. The protesters, dressed in camouflage and carrying assault weapons and zip-tie handcuffs, vowed to continue to support Trump while railing against Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

At a news conference Monday, Beshear vowed he would not be “intimidated,” and he called on Americans to reject those who threaten the symbols and buildings that represent the country’s democratic principles.

“These are not the actions of people who believe in this country. These are people who believe they can bully and intimidate other individuals,” Beshear, visibly angry, said. “To anybody who believes that domestic terror is the way to go, we will be ready for you. We will not back down.”

In Wisconsin, state workers on Monday began boarding up ground-level windows of the Capitol in Madison in anticipation of the protesters. In Arizona, officials had erected a double-layer chain-link fence around the Capitol complex in Phoenix. In Michigan, a state that has been on edge since the FBI disrupted a plot in October to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), a state legislative committee voted Thursday to ban residents from openly carrying guns inside the Capitol in Lansing.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) called up 750 National Guard troops to help protect the Capitol, where the legislature kicked off its annual session Monday.

Jennifer Schuessler reports Hundreds of Historians Join Call for Trump’s Impeachment:

More than 300 historians and constitutional scholars have signed an open letter calling for the impeachment and removal of President Trump. They say his continuation in office after encouraging supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol posed “a clear and present danger to American democracy and the national security of the United States.”

Those who signed the letter, released on Medium on Monday, include best-selling authors like Ron Chernow, Taylor Branch, Garry Wills and Stacy Schiff, as well as many leading academic historians. A number of the signatories had joined a previous letterin December 2019, calling for the president’s impeachment because of “numerous and flagrant abuses of power” including failure to protect the integrity of the impending 2020 election.

“Since November 2020,” the new letter says, “Trump has refused to accept the results of a free and fair election, something no president before him has ever done.”

Politically, the condemnation by historians may carry less weight than the president’s loss of support in recent days from business groups that once supported him or his policies. But David Greenberg, a historian at Rutgers who drafted the new letter, said that historical expertise mattered.

“Trump has defied the Constitution and broken laws, norms, practices and precedents, for which he must be held accountable now and after he leaves office,” the letter says of his presidency. “No future president should be tempted by the example of his defiance going unpunished.”

Japan’s Hokuriku region blanketed by record snowfall:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of twenty-nine.  Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 4:42 PM, for 9h 19m 00s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 3.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Board meets at via audiovisual conferencing 6 PM.

On this day in 1787, William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Kathleen Gray reports In Michigan, a Dress Rehearsal for the Chaos at the Capitol on Wednesday:

LANSING, Mich. — First came the “Unlock Michigan” protest. More than 1,000 cars, many draped with flags supporting President Trump, drove around the Michigan State Capitol, blaring their horns and decrying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus lockdown orders. Hundreds of others, many armed with military-style weapons, milled about on the lawn.

Two weeks later, on April 30, the dissent escalated. Gun-toting protesters rushed the State Capitol, not long after Mr. Trump tweeted “Liberate Michigan.” They demanded entry into the House of Representatives’ chamber, chanting “Let Us In.”

A handful of them, wearing camouflage fatigues with semiautomatic rifles slung over their shoulders, watched ominously from the gallery above the Senate chamber as the elected officials did their work. The lawmakers passed bills and resolutions and gave angry floor speeches about the extraordinary show of force looking down at them. At least two of the protesters were among 14 people later charged in a failed plot to kidnap Ms. Whitmer and bomb the state Capitol.

See also After trial runs at statehouses last year, the far-right’s violent tactics erupted at the Capitol.

 Ann Hornaday writes The Trump cult has obliterated the line between citizenship and fandom, with deadly results:

“Sleep well tonight, patriots … You are going to love how this movie ends.”

Those are the words of StormIsUponUs, who posted on Parler on Wednesday encouraging the hundreds of Donald Trump supporters who earlier that day had laid siege to the sanctum sanctorum of American democracy.

Presumably, the rioters were there to stop the process underway to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden, a dubious goal they achieved for a few tense and chaotic hours. Mostly, though, they seemed aimless and incoherent, roaming the corridors, ransacking offices, scrambling up and down walls even though stairs were right there. A motley crew dressed in red MAGA hats and ridiculous costumes ranging from Uncle Sam and a bald eagle to Captain America and the Punisher, they presented a bizarre tableau, as if a “Purge” sequel were being filmed at Mos Eisley’s Cantina.

And, as indicated by the movie quote, cinematic references were definitely the point for people who, once they claimed the stage, clearly had no idea what to do with it. Rather than kicking ass and taking names, they looked like asses and made memes. Incoherent, incompetent, devoid of ideology beyond inchoate rage at not getting their way, they mulled and milled about — posing, posturing, taking selfies and live-streaming their exploits. “Our house!” West Virginia state delegate Derrick Evans exclaimed on Facebook Live as he joined the rioters who had smashed windows and bullied their way through doors. “We’re in, baby!” (On Friday, he was charged with unlawfully entering restricted grounds.)

How Instant Ramen Became An Instant Success:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be overcast with a high of twenty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:41 PM, for 9h 17m 32s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 9% of its visible disk illuminated.

  On this day in 1927, Fritz Lang’s futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Adam Liptak reports Can Twitter Legally Bar Trump? The First Amendment Says Yes:

When Simon & Schuster canceled its plans this week to publish Senator Josh Hawley’s book, he called the action “a direct assault on the First Amendment.”

And when Twitter permanently banned President Trump’s account on Friday, his family and his supporters said similar things. “We are living Orwell’s 1984,” Donald Trump Jr. said — on Twitter. “Free-speech no longer exists in America.”

The companies’ decisions may have been unwise, scholars who study the First Amendment said, but they were perfectly lawful. That is because the First Amendment prohibits government censorship and does not apply to decisions made by private businesses.

It is certainly possible to violate the values embodied in the First Amendment without violating the First Amendment itself. But the basic legal question could hardly be more straightforward, said RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor at the University of Utah. And, she said, it should not have been lost on Mr. Hawley, who graduated from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

“It’s become popular — even among those who plainly know better — to label all matters restricting anyone’s speech as a ‘First Amendment issue,’” she said. “But the First Amendment limits only government actors, and neither a social media company nor a book publisher is the government. Indeed, they enjoy their own First Amendment rights not to have the government require them to associate with speech when they prefer not to do so.”

(Emphasis added.)

 Mark Cuban explained the rights of private publishers in a free society to Sen. Hawley after the cancelation of Hawley’s book deal:

Josh, let me explain Capitalism to you. Sometimes people decide not to do business with you. It’s their decision. You know the whole “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service” thing? In your case it happens to be “No Principles, No Honesty, No Book” thing. Feel free to Self-Publish.

 Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt report Trump has not lowered flags in honor of an officer who died from injuries sustained amid the riot:

President Trump has not ordered the flags on federal buildings to fly at half-staff in honor of Brian D. Sicknick, a police officer who was killed after trying to fend off pro-Trump loyalists during the siege at the Capitol on Wednesday.

While the flags at the Capitol have been lowered, Mr. Trump has not issued a similar order for federal buildings under his control. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials. Hours earlier, addressing supporters at a rally steps from the White House, Mr. Trump denounced the 2020 election as stolen from him and instructed them to march “peacefully” to the Capitol while also repeatedly noting that his side needed to “fight.”

Mr. Trump has not reached out to Mr. Sicknick’s family, although Vice President Mike Pence called to offer condolences, an aide to Mr. Pence said.

Inside NYC’s new Penn Station train hall: