Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-nine.  Sunrise is 5:33 AM and sunset 8:28 PM, for 14h 55m 25s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 37% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board agenda lists a meeting time of 5:30 PM today.

On this day in 1865, four Wisconsin regiments muster out: “The 3rd and 18th Wisconsin Infantry regiments and the 1st and 6th Wisconsin Light Artillery batteries mustered out.”

Recommended for reading in full — 

  As is his habit, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, Trump now proclaims his summit with Putin a great success:

So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!

(Many of Trump’s remarks have this same childish character, with their habitual mixture of weak thinking, evident insecurity, and stunted expression.  The ‘higher ends of intelligence,’ however odd, is an expression Trump uses to awe the ignorant or slow-witted into believing that somewhere, someplace, there are supposedly clever people who support Trump’s approach, and so others should fall in line.)

  Lucian Kim reports ‘Better Than Super’: Russia Reacts To Trump-Putin Summit In Helsinki:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a master of diplomatic verbosity and sardonic barbs, summed up the results of the Helsinki summit in just three exuberant words: “better than super.”

After four years of getting short shrift by his American counterparts, Russian President Vladimir Putin was standing side by side with President Trump, who lavished him with the words of praise, respect and awe normally only heard on Russian state television.

When Putin militarily intervened in Ukraine in 2014, President Barack Obama called Russia a “regional power” that threatened its neighbors out of weakness, not strength. Russia’s annexation of Crimea set off a precipitous decline in relations with the United States. When he took office, Trump could not reverse the trend because of accusations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election.

And then, without any change in Kremlin policy, Trump agreed to sit down one-on-one with Putin.

  Julia Ioffe contends Now We All Know What Putin Has on Trump:

It’s hard to know what to say after a day—a week—like the one we’ve just experienced. On one hand, none of it should’ve come as a surprise. The full frontal assault on our closest allies in the EU and NATO, like the assault on the free press and the pointless flattery of Vladimir Putin, stretch back two years to the 2016 campaign. Donald Trump has spent this past week doing exactly what he said he would do before his election, and doubling down on the denials that anything but his own genius helped him win that election. And yet, no matter how many times we’ve heard “NO COLLUSION!,” there’s something about watching it unfold in real time that stuns in a way that—like catching a cheating partner after months of suspicion or seeing a loved one die after a terminal illness—no amount of intellectual knowing, understanding, or expecting can prepare you for.

After Trump and Putin met in Helsinki, many pundits and politicians struggled to understand what it is they saw, to rationalize it, to explain it away, to speculate on what kinds of kompromat the Russians could have on Trump, when the answer—like infidelity or death—was staring them, us, in the face. Yes, Putin has something on Trump: He helped him win. That’s the kompromat.

Facing the press after his meeting with Trump, Putin admitted—openly, arrogantly—that yes, he had wanted Trump to win in 2016. But we had known that as early as…2016. His state-run media didn’t do much to hide their boss’s preference: anyone but Hillary Clinton. I remember constantly explaining that summer why Putin preferred Trump to Clinton. Through the spring of 2016, Kremlin TV was clear that it wasn’t that Putin wanted Trump to win, it was that he wanted Clinton to lose. The propaganda machine—and, as we now know, the covert influence machine—got behind Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Jill Stein—anyone who wasn’t Clinton.

(There’s likely more Putin has on Trump, but Ioffe’s core claim is right: Putin helped elect Trump, and that alone is a powerful lever.)

Anton Troianovski contends Putin got his summit. Now he needs results:

For the Kremlin, the summit was only the beginning.

Russian commentators and politicians declared the meeting here between Presidents Trump and Vladi­mir Putin a triumph, concluding that Trump was finally serious about fulfilling his campaign promise to improve relations with Moscow.

“It is here in Helsinki where the first step toward a better future was made,” government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta proclaimed.

Now, Russian officials are waiting to see whether Trump’s words will translate into action or fall flat in the face of a U.S. establishment that they view as determined to reverse the thaw.

Andrei Klimov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said in an interview Tuesday that he expected senior U.S. and Russian officials to meet repeatedly in the next six months and hammer out a “road map” toward resolving contentious issues and deepening cooperation.

Here’s Why Stradivarius violins are worth millions:

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-four.  Sunrise is 5:32 AM and sunset 8:29 PM, for 14h 57m 05s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Unified School District’s Citizens Financial Advisory Committee meets at 6 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1955, Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

Recommended for reading in full — 

  The Committee to Investigate Russia ably captures the reaction to the Trump-Putin summit in a post entitled Shock, Outrage, and Disgust:

UPDATE: Putin was pleased with Trump’s performance.

---

Career intelligence officers, Democrats, and Republicans weigh in on President Trump’s stunning appearance alongside Vladimir Putin during which the president of the United States sided with the Russian authoritarian over his own intelligence officials and attacked both Democrats and the FBI.

While the reaction is overwhelmingly negative, some Republicans still refuse to take a strong stance against President Trump, with at least a couple defending him.

Former CIA Director:

Former Acting CIA Director and CIR Advisory Board member:

Former FBI Agent and CIR Advisory Board member:

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia and CIR Advisory Board member Evelyn Farkas:

….

Senate Minority Leader:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC):

“The Senate Intelligence Committee has reviewed the 2017 IC assessment and found no reason to doubt its conclusion that President Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at the 2016 U.S. elections with the goal of undermining faith in our democratic process. Russia has conducted a coordinated cyberattack on state election systems, and hacked critical infrastructure. They have used social media to sow chaos and discord in our society.  They have beaten and harassed U.S. diplomats and violated anti-proliferation treaties.  Any statement by Vladimir Putin contrary to these facts is a lie and should be recognized as one by the President.

“Vladimir Putin is not our friend and never has been.  Nor does he want to be our friend.  His regime’s actions prove it.  We must make clear that the United States will not tolerate hostile Russian activities against us or our allies.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman:

House Intelligence Committee‘s top Democrat:

Senator John McCain (R-AZ):

McCain’s full statement:

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.

“President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.

“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.

“Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT):

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN):

….
Current Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued the following statement:

Axios:

• Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE): “This is bizarre and flat-out wrong. The United States is not to blame. America wants a good relationship with the Russian people but Vladimir Putin and his thugs are responsible for Soviet-style aggression. When the President plays these moral equivalence games, he gives Putin a propaganda win he desperately needs.”
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “Missed opportunity by President Trump to firmly hold Russia accountable for 2016 meddling and deliver a strong warning regarding future elections. This answer by President Trump will be seen by Russia as a sign of weakness and create far more problems than it solves. … if it were me, I’d check the soccer ball [that Putin gave Trump] for listening devices and never allow it in the White House.”
• Rep. Pete King (R-NY): “[I] strongly disagree” with Trump’s statement that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election. “[I’m] disappointed, not flabbergasted.” King added that having Russia cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller “would be like bringing ISIS into a joint terrorism task force.”
• Fox Business host Neil Cavuto: “That’s what made his performance disgusting. I’m sorry its the way I feel. It’s not a right or left thing, it’s just wrong. A U.S. president on foreign soil talking to our biggest enemy, or adversary, or competitor … is essentially letting the guy get away with this and not even offering a mild criticism, that set’s us back a lot.”

Former intel chiefs condemn Trump’s news conference with Putin (CNN)

Top Republicans in Congress break with Trump over Putin comments (CNN)

What they’re saying: Trump blasted after press conference with Putin (Axios)

(It’s not sadness, though, that will change any of this; it’s a righteous anger that will send Trumpism into a political outer darkness.)

 Astronomers Just Discovered 12 NEW Moons Around Jupiter:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see scattered morning showers and a high of eighty-four.  Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 14h 58m 41s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 16.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Downtown Whitewater Board meets at 5 PM, the Whitewater Unified School District’s Policy Review Committee at 6 PM, and the Library Board at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1945, the United States detonates the first atomic bomb at a test site in New Mexico.

  David Ignatius writes Putin must wonder what else America knows about Russia:

Looking at this case through a counterintelligence lens raises an intriguing new series of questions. In putting all the detail into the indictment, Mueller was giving Russian intelligence a hint of how much America can see. But this public disclosure may mask much deeper capabilities — perhaps a capacity to expose many more layers of GRU military-intelligence operations and those by the Russian civilian spy services, the FSB and the SVR. American intelligence agencies rarely tip their hand this way by disclosing so much in an indictment; clearly they did so here to send messages.

Explains one former CIA officer: “Given that we clearly had so much of the Russian internal communication and cyber footprints, they must be asking what else do we have? Do we have communications between the units and more senior officers in the GRU? With the General Staff? With the Kremlin? With Putin? Probably not the latter directly, but the Russians are very bureaucratic and it’s hard for me to imagine there is not a clear trail of higher level approvals, progress reports, etc.”

….

The indictment also sends a message to President Trump and members of his entourage who are potential targets of Mueller’s probe: Here’s a hint of what we know; how much are you willing to wager that we don’t know a lot more about Russian contacts and collusion? For example, the indictment is a proffer of Mueller’s information about contacts between GRU cut-out “Guccifer 2.0” and Roger Stone, Trump’s friend and adviser. What else does Mueller have?

(Hat tip to Joe for the link.)

  Annie Lowrey asks How Much Damage Will Trump’s Trade War Do? (“Higher prices, slowing growth, mounting layoffs—and the indirect costs may be even greater”):

The effect on American growth stands to be small but noticeable, economists said. Paul Ashworth, the chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said he estimated the hit at 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points of GDP. Morgan Stanley put the direct impact at 0.3 percentage points, with a variety of other forecasters and economic analysts coming up with similar numbers. “There is no question that the short-run impact of the tariffs is to weaken G.D.P.,” said Chris Varvares of Macroeconomic Advisers by IHS Markit, a forecasting firm. That said, he added, “even sizable tariffs are not recession-inducing” given the kind of growth the country is seeing right now.

But the trade war is more than just tariffs. Trump’s actions might reduce consumer confidence, undercut business investment, and reduce investors’ appetite for risk. Companies anticipating more tariffs and export barriers, for instance, might choose not to expand their operations in the United States. “Since workers and firms don’t know if they might be impacted by retaliatory tariffs, including losing your job or shutting down your firm, the U.S. imposing tariffs is the economic equivalent of a game of Russian roulette,” Varvares said, adding that the economic impact of such decision-making was far harder to model and measure.

….

Even if the overall GDP effect remains muted—just a few tenths of a percentage point—some communities and consumers stand to feel it much harder than others. Agricultural businesses, for instance, are bracing for tariffs. “For soybean producers like me this is a direct financial hit,” Brent Bible, a soy and corn farmer based in Indiana, said in a statement. “This is money out of my pocket. These tariffs could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for an entire year’s worth of work out in the field, and that’s only in the near term.” The auto industry is also warning that Trump’s threatened tariffs might cost thousands of production jobs—losses that would be concentrated in Rust Belt states like Michigan, among others.

  Trump blames America:

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”

(Putin seizes Crimea, foments war in eastern Ukraine, bolsters a mass-murdering dictator in Syria, orders the murder of expatriates abroad, and interferes in American elections, but Trump sees America at fault.  There’s no poodle half so devoted to its owner as Trump is to Putin.)

  Ximena Conde reports Milwaukee Dockless Scooters Case To Be Heard In Federal Court:

Cities across the United States are grappling with how to deal with dockless electric scooters that have begun appearing along sidewalks overnight without any regulations.

Lawsuits and cease-and-desist orders have sometimes followed the arrival of California-based companies Bird Rides Inc., LimeBike and Spin. Some cities say the scooters are illegal to operate on streets or sidewalks where they get dangerously close to pedestrians. And because the scooters are dockless, they’re parked anywhere when a ride is over, causing cities heartburn over blocking sidewalks.

Now, the city of Milwaukee wants to get Bird scooters off its streets and sidewalks after they appeared in late-June.

(‘Without any regulations’ – the popularity or unpopularity of the devices will always be a more powerful constraint than a municipal ordinance.)

  What Do Artificial Sweeteners Actually Do to Your Body?:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon thunderstorms and a high of eighty-six.  Sunrise is 5:30 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 00m 15s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 9.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see a mix of clouds and sun, an occasional thunderstorm, and a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 5:29 AM and sunset 8:31 PM, for 15h 01m 45s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Bastille Day:

Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on the 14th of July each year. In French, it is formally called la Fête Nationale….

The French National Day is the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789,[1][2] a turning point of the French Revolution,[4] as well as the Fête de la Fédération which celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790. Celebrations are held throughout France. The oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe is held on the morning of 14 July, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, along with other French officials and foreign guests.[5][6]

….

In the debate leading up to the adoption of the holiday, Henri Martin, chairman of the French Senate, addressed that chamber on 29 June 1880:

Do not forget that behind this 14 July, where victory of the new era over the ancien régime was bought by fighting, do not forget that after the day of 14 July 1789, there was the day of 14 July 1790 … This [latter] day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood, for having divided the country. It was the consecration of the unity of France … If some of you might have scruples against the first 14 July, they certainly hold none against the second. Whatever difference which might part us, something hovers over them, it is the great images of national unity, which we all desire, for which we would all stand, willing to die if necessary.
— Henri Martin, Chairman of the Sénat, 1880^[17]

Recommended for reading in full — 

  Autumn Brewington, Mikhaila Fogel, Susan Hennessey, Matthew Kahn, Katherine Kelley, Shannon Togawa Mercer, Matt Tait, and Benjamin Wittes write Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment:

The timing of the indictment given the upcoming Helsinki summit is a powerful show of strength by federal law enforcement. Let’s presume that Mueller did not time this indictment to precede the summit by way of embarrassing Trump on the international stage. It is enough to note that he also did not hold off on the indictment for a few days by way of sparing Trump embarrassment—and that Rosenstein did not force him to. Indeed, Rosenstein said at his press conference that it is “important for the president to know what information was uncovered because he has to make very important decisions for the country” and therefore “he needs to know what evidence there is of foreign election interference.” But of course Rosenstein and Mueller did not just let Trump know. They also let the world know, which has the effect—intended or not—of boxing in the president as he meets with an adversary national leader.

Put less delicately: Rosenstein has informed the president, and the world, before Trump talks to Putin one-on-one that his own Justice Department is prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in public, using admissible evidence, that the president of the Russian Federation has been lying to Trump about Russian non-involvement in the 2016 election hacking.

Here are the indictment and the Justice Department’s accompanying press release.

….

[embeddoc url=”https://freewhitewater.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/netyksho_et_al_indictment.pdf” width=”100%” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

  Philip Rucker writes After being told of Russia indictments, Trump still aspired to be friends with Putin:

HELSINKI — Before he embarked on a week of transatlantic diplomacy, President Trump sat down with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who previewed for the boss an explosive development: The Justice Department would soon indict 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic emails to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

For the first time, the United States would be charging Russian government agents with planning and executing a sustained cyberattack to disrupt America’s democratic process. Yet Trump gave no sign in his commentary in Europe this week that he appreciated the magnitude of what he had been told was coming.

Instead, he repeated his frequent attacks on the integrity of the wide-ranging Russia probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — while offering kind words for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, who he is slated to meet here in Helsinki on Monday.

Trump said Putin should not be considered his enemy but rather his competitor — and after spending some time together here in this vibrant seaside Nordic capital, Trump said he hoped they might quickly become friends.

Jennifer Cohn writes Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), who went to Russia this past July 4 and says we should overlook Russia’s election meddling, enjoyed one of the most surprising election wins of 2016 after Russia compromised his state’s election system [from a longer series of points]:

4. But Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin suggested upon his return that the U.S. has gone too far in punishing Russia for its election meddling:

“I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference—as serious as that was, and unacceptable—is not the greatest threat to our democracy … We’ve blown it way out of proportion.” (Id.)

5. “Johnson elaborated on his position in a Monday interview with WOSH-AM radio, in which he said there were more serious threats” and that it’s “very difficult to really meddle in our elections. It just is. These are locally run, it’s almost impossible to change the vote tally.”

https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/republican-senator-returns-moscow-says-election-meddling-overblown

6. Johnson is wrong. As explained in the July 2017 congressional testimony of Computer Science Professor Alex Halderman, “hacking a national election in the United States would be, well, shockingly easy.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD3qqBfU0no

7. According to a recent study by Penn Wharton (University of Pennsylvania, just two vendors — Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Dominion Voting — account for about 80% of U.S. election equipment. https://trustthevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-whartonoset_industryreport.pdf

21. Senator Johnson of Wisconsin, however, may have an incentive to deny the vulnerability of U.S. elections to meddling by Russia or even domestic actors.

22. During the 2015–16 election cycle, the Political Action Committee for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker accepted $1.1 million “from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns

(Emphasis in original.)

  Craig Gilbert observes GOP senate primary in Wisconsin already reflects north-south divide within party:

The fight to pick a Republican nominee against U.S. Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin is playing out along a familiar GOP fault line in Wisconsin.

North versus South.

In GOP primary polls this year, state Sen. Leah Vukmir is leading by double-digits in populous southeast Wisconsin, her home turf. Marine Corps veteran and first-time candidate Kevin Nicholson is well ahead in the rest of Wisconsin, especially the rural north and west.

If this schism sounds familiar by now, there’s a reason. It was a defining feature of the state’s past three Republican presidential primaries and the GOP primary for governor that launched Scott Walker in 2010.

RELATED: MU Poll: Tammy Baldwin leads Republican challengers Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin U.S. Senate race

  Lilac is on the Road to Recovery:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see an occasional thunderstorm with a high of eighty-nine.  Sunrise is 5:29 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 03m 13s of daytime.

On this day in 1787, Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance:

It created the Northwest Territory, the first organized territory of the United States, from lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between British North America and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The upper Mississippi River formed the Territory’s western boundary.

Recommended for reading in full — 

  Frances Robles reports FEMA Was Sorely Unprepared for Puerto Rico Hurricane, Report Says:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s plans for a crisis in Puerto Rico were based on a focused disaster like a tsunami, not a major hurricane devastating the whole island. The agency vastly underestimated how much food and fresh water it would need, and how hard it would be to get additional supplies to the island.

And when the killer storm did come, FEMA’s warehouse in Puerto Rico was nearly empty, its contents rushed to aid the United States Virgin Islands, which were hammered by another storm two weeks before. There was not a single tarpaulin or cot left in stock.

Those and other shortcomings are detailed in a FEMA report assessing the agency’s response to the 2017 storm season, when three major hurricanes slammed the United States in quick succession, leaving FEMA struggling to deliver food and water quickly to storm victims in Puerto Rico.

(Emphasis added.)

  Rhodes Cook writes Registering by Party: Where the Democrats and Republicans Are Ahead:

This is not the best of times for the Democratic Party. No White House; no Senate; no House of Representatives; and a clear minority of governorships and state legislatures in their possession. Yet the Democrats approach this fall’s midterm elections with an advantage in one key aspect of the political process — their strength in states where voters register by party.

Altogether, there are 31 states (plus the District of Columbia) with party registration; in the others, such as Virginia, voters register without reference to party. Among the party registration states are some of the nation’s most populous: California, New York, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, and Massachusetts.

The basic facts: In 19 states and the District, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 12 states, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats. In aggregate, 40% of all voters in party registration states are Democrats, 29% are Republicans, and 28% are independents. Nationally, the Democratic advantage in the party registration states approaches 12 million.

(There are in these totals almost as many independents as Republicans.  It’s true that Republicans overwhelmingly support Trump, but it’s as true that his party represents only a minority of all preferences.  An ethnic nationalist approach is no match for a multiethnic one in support of American liberal democratic values at home & abroad.)

Rick Wilson writes Republicans Thought Peter Strzok Would Be a Punching Bag. He Just Knocked Them Out:

The first was a ringing defense of the FBI, with Strzok showing the kind of real passion that makes for great television. The FBI lifer issued a ringing defense of himself and his agency, punching Gowdy hard in the nose.

“I can assure you, Mr. Chairman, at no time, in any of these texts, did those personal beliefs ever enter into the realm of any action I took. Furthermore, this isn’t just me sitting here telling you don’t have to take my word for it. At every step, at every investigative decision, there are multiple layers of people above me, the assistant director, executive assistant director, deputy director, and director of the FBI, and multiple layers of people below me, section chiefs, supervisors, unit chiefs, case agents and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions. They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me any more than I would tolerate it in them.”

He closed with this fastball:

“That is who we are as the FBI. And the suggestion that I in some dark chamber somewhere in the FBI would somehow cast aside all of these procedures, all of these safeguards and somehow be able to do this is astounding to me. It simply couldn’t happen. And the proposition that that is going on, that it might occur anywhere in the FBI, deeply corrodes what the FBI is in American society, the effectiveness of their mission, and it is deeply destructive.”

The second was a shot across Donald Trump’s bow: “I understand we are living in a political era in which insults and insinuation often drown out honesty and integrity. I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart.”

  Uri Friedman sees What’s Missing From Kim Jong Un’s ‘Very Nice Note’ to Trump:

Donald Trump called it “a very nice note.” And it is super-nice! In the letter that the president published on Twitter on Thursday, Kim Jong Un refers to Trump as “Your Excellency” and writes glowingly of the “meaningful journey” he and the U.S. president have embarked on since last month’s summit in Singapore. He notes the “epochal progress” they’re pursuing in improving U.S.-North Korea relations, which he suggests could include a second meeting between the two leaders.

But there’s one word conspicuously missing from the message, which Kim’s deputy delivered to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang last weekend: “denuclearization.” The North Korean leader makes no mention of giving up his nuclear-weapons program, his more ambiguous vow in Singapore to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” or anything else related to his nuclear weapons. The closest he gets is mentioning “faithful implementation of the joint statement” he and Trump signed at the summit, but even there it’s in the context of praising Trump’s efforts to implement the agreement, not his own.

(Clever: North Korea knows that Trump would prefer praise of his role over genuine foreign policy results.)

  Here’s a Needle-Less Alternative To Stitches:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-seven.  Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset 8:32 PM, for 15h 04m 37s of daytime.  The moon is new with 0.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s municipal government will hold a public meeting on a Lakes drawdown project at 5 PM.

On this day in 1995, a deadly heatwave begins:

From July 12-15, 1995, the Midwest was subjected to a deadly outbreak of hot and humid weather responsible for 141 deaths in Wisconsin. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, this was the “greatest single event of weather-related deaths in Wisconsin history.” Most of the fatalities happened in the urban southeast counties of the state, and at one point several Milwaukee-area hospitals were unable to admit more patients.

Milwaukee Temperatures (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): July 12: Hi=91, Lo=65 July 13: Hi=103*, Lo=78 July 14: Hi=102, Lo=84 July 15: Hi=92, Lo=69 July 16: Hi=88, Lo=68 *Some communities reported highs as high as 108. Heat Index values were 120-130 degrees.

Recommended for reading in full — 

  David Corn offers While America Sleeps (“With a summit ahead, Trump works with Putin to cover up Moscow’s attack on the US”):

In 1938, Winston Churchill published a collection of his speeches warning that his homeland was not adequately contending with the threat posed by Nazi Germany. The title: “While England Slept.” Eighty years later, a similar observation can be rendered concerning the United States. Much of the political and media elite and the citizenry seem to be sleepwalking past a horrific and fundamental fact: The current president of the United States has helped to cover up a serious attack on the nation. This profound act of betrayal has gone unpunished and, in many quarters, unnoticed, even as it continues. With Donald Trump about to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday—rewarding the thuggish authoritarian Russian leader with a grand summit in Helsinki—this is an appropriate moment to remember that their dark bromance involves a mutual stonewalling of wrongdoing.

Though the US intelligence community, most of Trump’s top national security aides, and Republican and Democratic congressional leaders have all agreed with the assessment that Putin’s regime mounted information warfare against the United States in 2016 to cause discord during the election and help Trump win the White House, Trump has continued to assist Putin’s brazen campaign of denial. Two weeks ago, Trump, in a tweet, gave credence to Putin’s claim that Moscow did not intervene in the election. “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Trump maintained. Instead, Trump insisted, the real scandal was that the Democratic National Committee in 2016 did not hand over to the FBI its servers, which were hacked by Russian intelligence. This server business is a phony Fox News-fueled scandal; the DNC provided copies of its servers to the bureau. And even if there were anything untoward about the server matter, it still would pale in comparison to a foreign adversary assaulting an American election with hacks and the dissemination of stolen material.

….

The aim of Trump’s tweet was to legitimize Putin’s disinformation and to divert attention from Putin’s operation to a distraction. In doing so, the president was stunningly serving Putin’s interests rather than those of the United States.

  Eliot A. Cohen writes Meet the Trumpverstehers (“We know about the president’s most vocal supporters. But what about his more discreet following?”):

A few years ago, the Germans created one of the compound nouns in which their language excels. The Russlandverstehers—literally, “Russia understanders”—were those who while not openly supporting Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea expressed sympathetic acceptance of it. They would never openly endorse the stealing of elections or the assassination of journalists, of course, but they understood the circumstances that lead to such unfortunate things, and the larger impulse to rough behavior to restore Russian national pride and enhance Russian prestige.

I propose the term Trumpverstehers in a similar spirit. These are not the mass of his supporters who fear the loss of jobs to global trade or automation; they are not the rural white Americans who feel threatened by immigration, ravaged by the opioid epidemic, and treated contemptuously by a bicoastal elite. In fact, by background, income, and employment, they are actually members of that elite.

….

The Trumpverstehers have given up on character in politics. None of them likes Trump, although they will use words such as vulgarian to characterize him, not liar, or bully, or scoundrel. They disregard his cruelty, too. When pressed, they claim that he may be an ignoramus and a rascal, but that that does not matter: only his policies do. In some ways, this reflects their belief in the strength of institutional constraints on the presidency, and in others their view that Trump is a blowhard who lacks the nerve to actually try, for example, to shut down hostile news media or incite large-scale violence. As long as the lines of his policy are reasonable in their eyes, they will ignore behavior that 20 years ago would have outraged them. They now consider qualities such as probity, thrift, magnanimity, and fidelity to be private virtues: From public figures, we cannot and should not expect them.

(There are, to be sure, local versions of these same Trumpverstehers in small towns across America – boosters and brazen men, mostly, convinced they’ve ‘arrived,’ and more than happy to tout Trumpism without mentioning Trump more than necessary.  They expect deference for inferior policy positions, mistaking their own sense of entitlement for worthy competency or insight.)

Don Behm reports Candidates for Milwaukee County sheriff promise changes after David Clarke:

Three Democratic candidates for Milwaukee County sheriff are sparring over which of them would move the department the greatest distance from former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.’s legacy of mistreatment of jail inmates, inadequate staff and budget deficits.

Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt promotes the dozen or more changes he has made since Clarke’s abrupt resignation in August 2017 — such as going after reckless drivers on freeways and reforming jail operations after several custody deaths during Clarke’s tenure — as the central theme of his campaign.

Earnell Lucas, a Major League Baseball security official and former Milwaukee Police Department captain, and Deputy Robert Ostrowski do not criticize any of Schmidt’s initiatives even as they attempt to link him to the troubles of the Clarke administration that he was a part of.

  Rich Kremer reports Researchers Find Promising Results In Frac Sand Mine Reclamation Test Plot (“5-Year Collaboration Studied How Well Soils And Wild Prairie Rebound After Mining”):

A five-year study in Chippewa County has transformed a reclaimed frac sand mine into a successful wild prairie. Researchers are hopeful that lessons learned can be used at other mining operations around the state beginning to fill in their pits.

In a rare collaboration, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls worked with industrial sand mining firm Superior Silica Sands and Chippewa County’s Department of Land Conservation and Forest Management to learn how sand mining impacts soil that is stripped away, stored and replaced after mining operations wrap up.

Since 2013, students led by UW-River Falls geology and soil science professor Holly Dolliver have been taking hundreds of samples from land owned by Superior Silica Sands in the Town of Auburn.

  Meet the Scientist Searching Sewers for Cures:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-six.  Sunrise is 5:27 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 05m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 3.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1839, the first patent is issued to a Wisconsin resident:

On this day Ebenezar G. Whiting of Racine was issued patent #1232 for his improved plow, the first patent issued to someone from Wisconsin. Whiting’s improvements consisted of making the mold-board straight and flat which, when united in the center with the curvilinear part of the mold-board, would require less power to drag through the dirt. Whiting went on to serve as Vice President of the J.I. Case Plow Company and received another patent for a steel plow in 1876.

Recommended for reading in full — 

  Marc Santora reports Trump Derides NATO as ‘Obsolete.’ Baltic Nations See It Much Differently:

As President Trump joins his second NATO summit meeting — having called the alliance “obsolete,” derided its members as deadbeats and suggested that American military protection is negotiable — there is deep unease on the alliance’s eastern flank. And that sense has only been heightened by Mr. Trump’s scheduled one-on-one meeting next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

For the nations of Latvia and Estonia, nestled between Russia and the Baltic Sea and with large ethnic Russian populations, NATO is no abstraction.

Long before the debate over the Kremlin’s interference in the American election, there was alarm in the Baltic nations over Russian attempts to influence public opinion and exploit the complicated issues of ethnic identity in a region reshaped by war and occupation. In both the annexation of Crimea and its actions in Ukraine, the Russian government has used protecting the rights of ethnic Russians as a pretext for intervention. About one-third of the populations of Latvia and Estonia are ethnic Russians.

(Putin’s American cat’s paw has never shown the slightest desire to defend democratic allies with whom we have mutual defense treaties.)

  Attorney Yoshinori H.T. Himel writes Enough with the euphemisms. They’re not ‘family residential centers.’ They’re jails:

And our government continues to use euphemisms. In response to the outcry against its enforcement of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking permission to build more “family residential centers” to detain immigrant families while their immigration cases make their way through the courts. By the benign label “family residential center,” ICE means what most of us would call a jail. ICE jails parents and children, many of whom are escaping violence and are using lawful procedures to apply for asylum.

“Tender age” shelters is another euphemism — “a chilling phrase we will not soon forget,” says Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Those are warehouses for children — including toddlers and infants — whom our government has torn from their families.

We must seek the truth behind the Orwellian labels. We must be wary of officials using language to evade responsibility. We must not, as we have done in the past, permit official euphemisms to lull us into silent complicity. Let’s call this what it is: violating human rights.

Ema O’Connor and Nidhi Prakash report Pregnant Women Say They Miscarried In Immigration Detention And Didn’t Get The Care They Needed:

The new ICE directive states that women are not to be held into their third trimester and that ICE is responsible for “ensuring pregnant detainees receive appropriate medical care including effectuating transfers to facilities that are able to provide appropriate medical treatment.”

But BuzzFeed News has found evidence that that directive is not being carried out. Instead, women in immigration detention are often denied adequate medical care, even when in dire need of it, are shackled around the stomach while being transported between facilities, and have been physically and psychologically mistreated.

In interviews and written affidavits, E and four other women who’ve been in ICE detention and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody while pregnant told of being ignored when they were obviously miscarrying, described their CBP and ICE-contracted jailers as unwilling or unable to respond to medical emergencies, and recounted an incident of physical abuse from CBP officers who knew they were dealing with a pregnant woman. Those descriptions were backed by interviews with five legal aid workers, four medical workers, and two advocates who work with ICE detainees.

The incidents were not limited to a single detention center. Three medical workers and five legal aid workers who spoke to BuzzFeed News all said they had seen — and some had documented — cases of pregnant women not receiving or being denied medical care in more than six different detention centers in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

  Stephanie Mencimer reports Trump Judicial Pick Who Blogged Favorably About the KKK Had to Withdraw. Now He’s at the Justice Department:

Brett Talley had already been voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was on his way to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench when reporters discovered what he’d written about the Klan. Since 2005, Talley, a 36-year-old lawyer nominated for a seat on the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, appeared to have posted more than 16,000 comments on University of Alabama sports message board TideFans.com. Writing as BamainBoston, he commented on everything from race to abortion. He disparaged Muslims, joked about statutory rape, and, most notably, wrote approvingly about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He defended the “first KKK” as something entirely different than the racist, violent organization it’s known as today.

After outcry about the comments and his general lack of qualifications for the job—Talley had never tried a case—he withdrew from consideration for the judgeship in December. But the controversy didn’t send him packing to Alabama. Instead, he simply continued working as deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy, where he oversaw the judicial nominations unit that advises the president and attorney general on the selection and confirmation of federal judges and conducts the vetting, interviewing, and evaluating of nominees. This spring, he moved to a more junior position at the Justice Department, as an assistant US attorney.

President Donald Trump has submitted 95 judicial nominations since Talley withdrew his own; 22 of those nominees have been confirmed. Among the 95 nominees are controversial picks such as Wendy Vitter, wife of disgraced former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and a staunch anti-abortion activist, and Oregon prosecutor Ryan Bounds, who wrote a series of articles while at Stanford University mocking multiculturalism and advocating for leniency for alleged campus rapists. Talley headed the Justice Department unit that helped select and vet many of those nominees.

  Wrap Your Head Around the Huge Size of SpaceX’s Falcon Rockets in This Video: