Good morning.

Labor Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of seventy-four.  Sunrise is 6:27 AM and sunset 7:17 PM, for 12h 49m 40s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 76.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1776, according to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world’s first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Michael Kranish reports Trump, under fire for alleged comments about veterans, has a long history of disparaging military service:

Long before Trump’s views of the military would emerge as a flash point in his 2020 reelection campaign — before he would shock the political world with the more widely seen 2015 attack on McCain, in which he said the senator was “not a war hero” and declared, “I like people who weren’t captured” — Trump had a long track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service.<

Many of his remarks are memorialized in television interviews and the tapes of radio conversations with shock jocks, dating to his years as a private citizen and businessman.

Trump, who avoided military service by citing a bone spur in his foot, has disparaged veterans who were wounded or captured or went missing in action and even compared his fear of sexually transmitted diseases to the experience of a soldier, saying in 1993, “if you’re young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam. It’s called the dating game.”

It is a history filled with contradictions, of a man who denigrates his handpicked generals while saying no one supports the military more than he does, and of a commander in chief who questions the bravery of some soldiers even as he reversed disciplinary action against a Navy SEAL over the objections of Pentagon officials. He was raised in a family that criticized the value of military service, according to niece Mary L. Trump, but nonetheless he was sent to a military academy for most of his teenage years.

Catherine Rampell writes Standard metrics won’t suffice. Here’s how to measure Trump’s failures so they register:

Maybe what’s needed are different units for measuring the Trump administration’s failures and scandals, since the standard metrics aren’t registering. His record should be quantified in scales that a Fox News viewer might be more familiar with: not body counts or dollars, but Benghazis and Solyndras.

For instance, sometimes pundits try to put the 183,000 covid-19 deaths in context by noting that cumulative deaths per capita in the United States are double those of Canada, quintuple those of Germany, 20 times those of Australia, 90 times those of South Korea, and so on.

But let’s be real: Lots of Americans don’t care about international comparisons. So here’s a different way to contextualize this national trauma: The number of lives lost to covid-19 is roughly equal to the death toll of 60 9/11 attacks.

Or, if you’d prefer a more recent ghoulish reference for quantifying mortality, the coronavirus death toll is about 46,000 Benghazis. Somehow, for years, the four tragic deaths in Benghazi consumed the agenda of six GOP-controlled congressional committees and the programming of the most-watched cable news channel. But today, a deadly shock magnified by government ineptitude that has led to 46,000 times as many lives lost “is what it is.“

Why Amazon Has A Fake Review Problem:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 6:26 AM and sunset 7:18 PM, for 12h 52m 31s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 83.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1803, British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Holmes Lybrand, Tara Subramaniam, and Kevin Liptak report In denying disrespect of soldiers, Trump cites call to Melania. There’s just one problem:

President Donald Trump has vehemently denied reports that he skipped a 2018 visit to a World War I memorial in France because he was concerned about his hair and considered the cemetery “filled with losers,” as the Atlantic first reported.

Trump told reporters Thursday that he “called home” to Melania Trump at the time and told her how upset he was about not being able to visit the cemetery. At the time, the White House said he had to cancel the visit because of bad weather.

Trump said: “I called home, I spoke to my wife and I said, ‘I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony.’ And to the one that was the following day, which I did go to. I said I feel terribly. And that was the end of it.”

But Melania Trump was not at “home” — she was on the trip with the president and was also scheduled to visit the cemetery.

A readout from the first lady’s office at the time said, “Due to inclement weather, the First Lady and President were unable to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau, France.”

That evening, Trump and Melania went to a dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

 Shane Harris and Ellen Nakashima report Russia is working to undermine confidence in voting by mail, DHS warns:

Russia is seeking “to undermine public trust in the electoral process” by spreading false claims that mail-in ballots are riddled with fraud and susceptible to manipulation, according to a new intelligence bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security.

Many of the claims made by Russian sources are identical to repeated, unsupported public statements aired by President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr, who have said that mailed ballots aren’t trustworthy while warning of the potential for rampant fraud in November’s elections.

Homeland Security’s intelligence office has assessed that Russian actors “are likely to promote allegations of corruption, system failure, and foreign malign interference to sow distrust in Democratic institutions and election outcomes,” the bulletin states. Russia spreads these claims through a network of state-controlled media, proxy websites and social media trolls, it adds.

(Attorney General William Barr: translator of Russian propaganda into Trump talking points.)

Jacob Gursky and Samuel Woolley report How hate and misinformation go viral: A case study of a Trump retweet:

On Sunday night, President Donald Trump retweeted a video of a violent incident on a New York City subway platform. The video shows a Black man pushing a white woman into a train car and is captioned “Black Lives Matter / Antifa.” The problem? It is over a year old and has nothing to do with either Black Lives Matter or Antifa. It, in fact, shows the actions of a mentally ill man with no known ties to either group.

The NASA Engineer Making STEM Sing:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-six.  Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 7:20 PM, for 12h 55m 20s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 90.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1882, the first United States Labor Day parade takes place in New York City.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Deneen Smith reports Militia members face gun charges, alleged to have come to Kenosha “to pick people off”:

Two Missouri men affiliated with a militia group that celebrates Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero on social media are facing federal charges after a witness told law enforcement the men came to Kenosha to loot and “pick people off.”

Michael M. Karmo, 40, and Cody E. Smith, 33, both of Hartville, Mo., are facing federal charges of illegal possession of firearms after being arrested Tuesday at a hotel in Pleasant Prairie.

Both Smith and Karmo are barred from possessing firearms because of past criminal convictions.

According to the criminal complaint, Kenosha Police informed the FBI that the department had received a tip that Karmo and an unidentified man were traveling from Missouri to Kenosha “to loot and possibly ‘pick people off.’”

The witness told investigators “Karmo told (him) he was going to Kenosha with the intention of possibly using the firearms on people. (The witness) feared that with Karmo’s increase in conspiracy theory talks and other ‘crazy’ political talk he was not in the right mindset to have a firearm.”

Smith and Karmo were taken into custody at the La Quinta Hotel, 7540 118th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie.

In the men’s vehicle and hotel room, FBI agents found body armor, tactical gear, an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, a homemade silencer and two handguns, along with ammunition for the weapons.

Lauren Gambino reports Biden warns Trump ‘legitimizes dark side of human nature’ in Kenosha visit:

Joe Biden on Thursday warned that Donald Trump’s behavior “legitimizes the dark side of human nature”. He made the remarks during a visit to Wisconsin, where he spoke by phone to Jacob Blake, a Black man whose shooting by a white police officer renewed nationwide protests against systemic racism.

For nearly 90 minutes after landing in the state, Biden and his wife, Jill, met privately with Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, his mother, Julia Jackson, his siblings, and some members of his legal team in a room at the Milwaukee airport.

Blake, who Biden said was released from the ICU, joined the conversation for nearly 15 minutes from the hospital. Blake’s family said he is paralyzed from the waist down after being struck seven times in the back by police as they tried to arrest him last month in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him – how whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up,” Biden said of their conversation during a listening session with community leaders, and two members of law enforcement, at Grace Lutheran church in Kenosha.

Video from Space – Weekly Highlights for the Week of Aug. 30th: 

Videos featured: Asteroid 2011 ES4 gives Earth a close shave, a full-size Space Launch System rocket booster was test fired, a triple-star system is warping its planet-forming disk, Arianespace launched a Vega rocket, SpaceX launched 60 new Starlink satellites and their Starship SN6 prototype took a 150 meter hop.

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-four.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 7:24 PM, for 13h 00m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1886, after almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Jeffrey Goldberg reports Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’ (‘The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic’):

When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

Matt Zapotosky reports Barr claims a man collected 1,700 ballots and filled them out as he pleased. Prosecutors say that’s not what happened:

In his latest warning about the dangers of mass mail-in voting, Attorney General William P. Barr pointed to a case in Texas that he said highlighted the risk of fraud.

“Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion,” Barr told CNN on Wednesday. “For example, we indicted someone in Texas, 1,700 ballots collected, he — from people who could vote, he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. Okay?”

Federal prosecutors brought no such indictment. And while a Justice Department spokeswoman said Barr was referring to a local prosecution involving suspected mail-in voting fraud in a city council election, the assistant district attorney on that case said Barr’s description doesn’t match the facts.

“That’s not what happened at all,” said Andy Chatham, who is now in private practice.

“Unfortunately, it speaks volumes to the credibility of Attorney General Barr when he submits half-truths and alternative facts as clear evidence of voter fraud without having so much as even contacted me or the district attorney’s office for an understanding of the events that actually occurred,” he added later.

After being asked about Chatham’s account, Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in a statement: “Prior to his interview, the Attorney General was provided a memo prepared within the Department that contained an inaccurate summary about the case which he relied upon when using the case as an example.”

 [Russian democratic activist] Navalny poisoning ‘requires an international response’, says NATO:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-six.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 7:24 PM, for 13h 00m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 Whitewater’s CDA meets at 1:30 PM.

 On this day in 1783, the Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Colby Itkowitz reports Trump suggests voters cast ballots twice, which if done intentionally is illegal:

President Trump, on Wednesday during a trip in battleground North Carolina, urged voters to vote twice, once by mail and once in person, to test the protections intended to guard against double voting.

Trump, who has claimed the 2020 election will be rife with fraud and rigged against him, was asked by a local television reporter whether he had confidence in the vote-by-mail system.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump said.

Intentionally voting twice is illegal, and in many states, including North Carolina, it is a felony.

The president also greeted supporters on the tarmac upon landing in Wilmington, N.C., and made nearly identical comments, encouraging them to send in their ballot “and then go in and vote.”

“So send it in early and then go and vote,” Trump said. “You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot … you send it in, but I’d check it, follow it and go vote.”

 Mona Charen writes of The Broken Windows Presidency:

Whatever the problems of implementation may have been with broken windows policing, the insight on which it was based—that disorder begets more disorder—seemed sound, particularly to conservatives who are temperamentally more sensitive to disruptions of order than liberals. If drug dealers are able to ply their trade unmolested on street corners and drunks are sleeping in vestibules, it’s an invitation to more serious breakdowns of public order.

Oddly, conservatives seem not to have applied this insight to Donald Trump, who from the moment he entered the fray, has been hurling rocks through windows. He smashed the window that required candidates to provide their tax returns. He lobbed a brick through the norm that American public figures do not encourage vigilantism. He demolished the principle that American presidents don’t dangle pardons before former aides caught in criminal activity. Each and every time he has violated a law or a norm and received no pushback from his party, he has made further violations of law and custom more likely.

Kevin Collier and Ken Dilanian report Russian internet trolls hired U.S. journalists to push their news website, Facebook says:

The site, called Peace Data, launched this year with coverage focused largely on the environment and corporate and political corruption. Facebook learned through a tip from the FBI that people formerly associated with the Russian Internet Research Agency, which created a number of influential Twitter and Facebook personas to inflame political tensions in the 2016 election, ran Peace Data and has taken down its known affiliated accounts. It had yet to gain a serious following, said Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of cybersecurity policy.

“It confirms what I think we’ve all thought: Russian actors are trying to target the 2020 elections and public debate in the U.S., and they’re trying to be creative about it,” Gleicher said.

How to Stop the Next Pandemic: