Good Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with an even chance of afternoon thundershowers, and a high of sixty-five. Sunrise is 6:15 AM and sunset 7:36 PM. The moon is a waning gibbous with 89% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-seventh day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1775, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (then the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage) becomes America’s first abolition society. On this day in 1865, Pres. Lincoln is shot while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre (and passes away the next day). Former Wisconsin governor Leonard Farwell was in attendance and rushed to warn Vice President Andrew Johnson of an impending attack.

Recommended for reading in full —

Karen Madden writes that a Wisconsin Mega-dairy’s future in question after ruling: “SARATOGA – An appeals court has blocked key parts of a proposed large-scale dairy farm that has been the subject of controversy for years in central Wisconsin, leaving both sides of the 5-year-old issue wondering what happens next. The owners of the proposed farm, known as Golden Sands, do not have the right to use more than 6,000 acres of land for agriculture and manure spreading, according to the Wisconsin District IV Court of Appeals in a ruling issued Thursday morning. The ruling overturns an earlier decision by a Wood County Circuit Court judge, which found the Wysocki Family of Companies’ application for dairy buildings on 100 acres of Saratoga land allowed it to use additional land associated with the proposed dairy for agricultural purposes. The appellate judges who issued the ruling found that Golden Sands “fails to support” its legal claim to use the land as proposed.”

Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall consider Four Decades and Counting: The Continued Failure of the War on Drugs:

Proponents of drug prohibition claim that such policies reduce drug-related crime, decrease drug-related disease and overdose, and are an effective means of disrupting and dismantling organized criminal enterprises.

We analyze the theoretical underpinnings of these claims, using tools and insights from economics, and explore the economics of prohibition and the veracity of proponent claims by analyzing data on overdose deaths, crime, and cartels. Moreover, we offer additional insights through an analysis of U.S. international drug policy utilizing data from U.S. drug policy in Afghanistan. While others have examined the effect of prohibition on domestic outcomes, few have asked how these programs impact foreign policy outcomes.

We conclude that prohibition is not only ineffective, but counterproductive, at achieving the goals of policymakers both domestically and abroad. Given the insights from economics and the available data, we find that the domestic War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in drug overdoses and fostered and sustained the creation of powerful drug cartels. Internationally, we find that prohibition not only fails in its own right, but also actively undermines the goals of the Global War on Terror.

See, full study, Four Decades and Counting The Continued Failure of the War on Drugs.

Historian Rick Perlstein writes I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong: “A puzzle remains. If Donald Trump was elected as a Marine Le Pen-style — or Hiram Evans-style — herrenvolk republican, what are we to make of the fact that he placed so many bankers and billionaires in his cabinet, and has relentlessly pursued so many 1-percent-friendly policies? More to the point, what are we to the make of the fact that his supporters don’t seem to mind? Here, however, Trump is far from unique. The history of bait-and-switch between conservative electioneering and conservative governance is another rich seam that calls out for fresh scholarly excavation: not of how conservative voters see their leaders, but of the neglected history of how conservative leaders see their voters.”

David Graham observes that Press Secretary Sean Spicer Throws In the Towel: “Why had the president decided the Ex-Im Bank wasn’t such a bad idea? “Let me get back to you on the Ex-Im bank. It’s a very complex issue and I would like to get back.” Why does Trump no longer believe China is devaluing its currency, even though he has said so as recently as February? “It’s a very, very complex issue and I’m gonna leave it to the president to specifically answer it,” Spicer offered. There’s an element of comedy to this: Spicer’s job is to explain the president’s positions to the press and the public. And sure, the press secretary can’t be expected to be an expert in every topic. Except that Spicer knows a thing or two about trade policy, having served as a spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the George W. Bush administration.”

John Bacon explains Stuff you should know if you find a bat in your salad: “If you do find a bat in your salad, don’t touch it! The CDC says data suggest that transmission of the rabies virus can occur from minor, seemingly unimportant or unrecognized bites from bats. “Human and domestic animal contact with bats should be minimized, and bats should never be handled by untrained and unvaccinated persons or be kept as pets,” the CDC says. A warning most of us probably don’t really need. If there is direct contact with a bat, unless you are certain there was no bite or scratch, the CDC recommends a delightful little regimen it calls “post-exposure prophylaxis.” Translation: a series of shots over two weeks. Also, if you are wondering whether you may have eaten salad from the recalled production line, fear not. “People who have eaten the recalled salad product and did not find animal material are not at risk and do not need to contact their health department,” the CDC cheerfully reports.”

Good morning.

Whitewater will see a rainy Thursday with a high of fifty-four. Sunrise is 6:14 AM and sunset 7:35 PM, for 13h 21m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.3% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-sixth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1743, Thomas Jefferson is born. On this day in 1864, the 14th, 29th, 33rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments help repulse Confederate troops attacking Union transport ships headed upstream on the Red River Expedition.

Recommended for reading in full —

Mike McIntire reports that After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties: “Aug. 19 was an eventful day for Paul Manafort. That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats’ emails were hacked and the campaign’s contacts with Russia came under scrutiny. Dogged by revelations about past financial dealings in Ukraine, Mr. Manafort retreated from public view. But behind the scenes, he was busy with other matters. Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a [pro-Russian] Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.”

Kelsey Sutton reports that GAO says it’s investigating Trump transition team: “The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether members of President Donald Trump’s transition team followed federal guidelines and ethics rules during the presidential transition, following complaints lodged by Democratic lawmakers in November. In a letter dated April 5 to Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the GAO confirmed that it would examine the transition team, including reviewing its use of federal funds and looking into the team’s communications with foreign governments. The letter was posted to Warren’s website this week and reported by The Associated Press on Wednesday.”

Jay Elwes conducts an interview with Richard Dearlove, the fomer head of Britain’s MI6, for Interview: Richard Dearlove—I spy nationalism: “…the allegations that members of Trump’s staff had illegal contact with the Russian government during the election campaign are “unprecedented,” said Dearlove. As for the president’s personal position, he said, “What lingers for Trump may be what deals—on what terms—he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him.” I also asked Dearlove about Trump’s suggestion that the US National Security Agency (NSA) or British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had bugged Trump Tower on the instructions of Barack Obama. This allegation was flatly rejected by both organisations and also by James Comey, Director of the FBI, who told Congress in a March hearing that “we have no information to support” Trump’s claim. “This is simply deeply embarrassing,” said Dearlove, “for Trump and the administration, that is. The only possible explanation is that Trump started tweeting without understanding how the NSA-GCHQ relationship actually works.”

Kaitlin Menza writes that Audience Laughs as Kellyanne Conway Complains About Liars: “She spoke at D.C.’s Newseum during an all-day examination of journalism in the Trump era. Other speakers included recent Pulitzer winner David Farenthold of the Washington Post and press secretary Sean Spicer. What does Conway, the woman who coined the term “alternative facts” to describe the information that President Trump relayed to the country regarding his inauguration crowd size, have to say about honesty in the media? “You can turn on the TV—more than you can read in the paper because I assume editors are still doing their jobs in most places—and people literally say things that just aren’t true,” Conway said with no trace of irony. The crowd at the Newseum promptly laughed in her face, to which she nodded and smiled as if to note she was in on the joke.”

 

Some laughs as @KellyannePolls says “You can turn on the TV…and people literally say things that just aren’t true.” pic.twitter.com/9CKVQV7fJM

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) April 12, 2017

Watch as a bald eagle protects her eaglet in during storm that spawned tornado in Washington:

Good morning.

Midweek in Whitewater will be increasingly partly cloudy with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:16 AM and sunset 7:34 PM, for 13h 18m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.6% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-fifth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1861, Confederate forces begin the Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter. On this day in 1864, the 14th, 29th, and 33rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments help repulse Confederates attacking Union transport ships heading upstream on the Red River Expedition.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous report that the FBI obtained FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page: “The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials. This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.”

(On 11.7.16, Louise Mensch reported about the existence of FISA warrants in this regard, more generally, in EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia.)

Meg Jones reports that a Civil War group files a lawsuit to get Wisconsin city to mow grass around graves: “A Civil War group upset over conditions at a Muskego cemetery that contains Civil War veterans’ graves filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to get the city to mow the grass. The Sons of Union Veterans asked Muskego officials last year to clear weeds and debris from the graves at a tiny cemetery at the southwest corner of Ryan and North Cape roads. The city refused because the small plot is a plant sanctuary and the last native prairie in Muskego. Muskego clears away some of the plants in the spring with a controlled burn but that also concerns members of the Wind Lake chapter of Sons of Union Veterans. “From their periodic burnings that they do, it’s degraded the (burial) stones where they’re about ready to fall apart and tip over,” said Bob Koenecke, the group’s commander. “We’d like them to stop the burning and we’d like them to clean up the cemetery.” Under Wisconsin law, veterans’ graves must “receive proper and decent care” from cemetery owners. The lawsuit filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court Tuesday is seeking a declaratory judgment on whether the way Muskego is caring for the cemetery is proper and decent.”

Heidi M Przybyla writes that Republicans avoid town halls after health care votes: “The migration away from public forums has been going on for months, despite complaints from constituents and local media. There have been roughly 30 recent newspaper editorials slamming lawmakers for avoiding town halls and calling on members to face their voters, not only in bluer portions of the country like New York but also in critical battlegrounds like Pennsylvania’s 6th and 7th districts, represented by Reps. Pat Meehan and Costello. Costello’s office screened participants for his Saturday town hall through the online reservation site Eventbrite and forbid videotaping, leading the local Democratic Party chair to call the event “staged.” Others lawmakers are holding question-and-answer events over the phone or Facebook Live, a social media tool allowing them to speak to a camera while avoiding uncomfortable public exchanges with the citizens they represent.”

Tom Daykin writes that Journal Sentinel block to be redeveloped for newspaper’s offices, other uses: “A preliminary deal has been reached to sell the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s longtime downtown headquarters to a Michigan development firm that plans to renovate it into offices for the newspaper and other businesses as well as street-level restaurant?space. ProVisions LLC, led by Murray Wikol,?also has conceptual plans to demolish a portion of the property, the old Milwaukee Sentinel building, and develop an 18-story office tower at the site….Gannett Co. Inc., which owns the Journal Sentinel, and Troy, Mich.-based ProVisions,?have reached a preliminary sale agreement. The companies hope to complete the transaction by June, Wikol said. “This better supports our business needs moving forward — it will allow us to improve our space for the future, including an emphasis on digital capabilities and collaboration,” said Chris Stegman, Journal Sentinel president. “It reinforces our commitment to the community and will be part of reinvigorating the west side of downtown.” Gannett plans to lease back space on the historic Milwaukee Journal building’s fourth and fifth floors, Wikol and Stegman said.”

(The headline should have read Gannett sells Journal Sentinel Building, Will Lease Back Only Part.)

A Great Pyrenees makes a break for it (but was found safe fifteen hours later sleeping in a nearby yard) —

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of fifty-one. Sunrise is 6:17 AM and sunset 7:33 PM, for 13h 15m 45sof daytime. The moon is full, with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1898, Pres. McKinley asks Congress for a declaration of war against Spain. On this day in 1965, six tornadoes struck Southern Wisconsin, killing 3 and injuring 65, as part of an outbreak of 51 tornadoes responsible for 260 deaths and over $200 million in damages throughout Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Recommended for reading in full —

Jacob Carpenter reports that a Milwaukee woman accuses jail staff of causing unborn child’s death: “A former inmate at the Milwaukee County Jail is alleging her unborn child died in the womb because of improper medical care she received while in Sheriff’s Office custody. Attorneys for Jennifer Jawson said they believe medical staff failed to give the 35-year-old mother proper prescriptions during her weeklong stint in jail. Jawson was nearly 9 months pregnant when her child’s heart stopped beating, her lawyers said Jawson’s attorneys on Friday filed a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit against a county agency. It’s the fifth notice of claim filed against the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office in relation to medical care and a death involving an inmate in 2016. Four people died at the facility last year.”

Anthony Faiola and Sarah Pulliam Bailey report How Pope Francis is leading the Catholic Church against anti-migrant populism: “VATICAN CITY — As politicians around the world including President Trump take an increasingly hard line on immigration, a powerful force is rallying to the side of migrants: the Roman Catholic Church led by Pope Francis. Catholic cardinals, bishops and priests are emerging as some of the most influential opponents of immigration crackdowns backed by right-wing populists in the United States and Europe. The moves come as Francis, who has put migrants at the top of his agenda, appears to be leading by example, emphasizing his support for their rights in sermons, speeches and deeds. The pro-migrant drive risks dividing Catholics — many of whom in the United States voted for Trump. Some observers say it is also inserting the church into politics in a manner recalling the heady days of Pope John Paul II, who stared down communism and declared his opposition to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Vatican is standing in open opposition to politicians like Trump not just on immigration but also on other issues, including climate-change policy. But the focal point is clearly migrant rights.”

Michael J. O’Loughlin reports New data suggest Clinton, not Trump, won Catholic vote: “According to an analysis of American National Election Studies data by a political scientist at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Catholic voters narrowly went for Democrat Hillary Clinton, 48 percent to 45 percent. Among Hispanic Catholics, Mrs. Clinton cleaned up handily, winning by more than 50 points.”

Rick Wilson contends that The Trouble With Trump’s White House Is Donald Trump: “Trump is faced with terrible options when it comes to rearranging the deck chairs on the SS White House, and those of us who warned you this was inevitable are ordering popcorn. The cancer in the presidency isn’t his staff—though they reflect his shoddy intellect, his shallow impulsiveness, his loose grasp of reality, and Chinese-menu ideology. The problem is Trump himself, and nothing and no one can change that. Let’s start with the leader of the Pepe Army sleeper cell at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Steve Bannon. If Trump keeps his chief strategist, he keeps the poisonous, post-conservative nationalism and thinly-veiled racial and religious animus that helped put him in the Oval Office. Bannon was great at running a conspiracy blog, but his political instincts are those of an arsonist, not a strategist. He has led Trump into a series of unforced political debacles, tainted relations with Congress, and alienated members of America’s new royal family. He’s already become persona non grata in Congress for his absurdly villainous performance trying unsuccessfully to browbeat them into accepting the ludicrously unpopular Trumpcare bill, and his economic nationalism is big-government statism wrapped in populist trade and industrial policies. Bannon is a famous brawler, and like many brawlers after too many beers, he lashes out any anyone for lookin’ at him funny. A Bannon power center in the White House is as dangerous as its vacuum.”

So, why do goats have weird eyes?

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see a high of seventy on a day with a probability of thunderstorms. Sunrise is 6:19 AM and sunset 7:32 PM, for 13h 12m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-third day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1866, Henry Bergh founds the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City. On this day in 1861, 26 volunteers from Sauk County depart for Madison where they would become part of the First Wisconsin Infantry, Company F. (By the end of the war, over one thousand men would serve in the Union Army from Sauk County alone.)

Recommended for reading in full —

Emily Steel reports that Fox Asks Law Firm to Investigate Bill O’Reilly Harassment Claim: “21st Century Fox has enlisted the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to investigate at least one accusation of sexual harassment against the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. The move is the latest in the response to a New York Times investigation published this month on Mr. O’Reilly’s settlements with five women who complained of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior. Wendy Walsh, a former guest on Mr. O’Reilly’s show who detailed accusations against him to The Times, called 21st Century Fox’s anonymous hotline last week, prompting the investigation. “21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters,” the company said in a statement on Sunday. Paul Weiss is the same law firm that conducted an internal investigation into Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman. 21st Century Fox executives decided to dismiss Mr. Ailes after the lawyers took statements from at least six women who described inappropriate behavior by him.”

Danny Vinik outlines Trump’s threat to the 2020 Census: “Already, Congress’ inability to agree on a full-year funding measure for fiscal 2017 has forced the Census Bureau to cancel multiple field tests and delay opening three field offices. It also had to cut back on new, less labor-intensive methods for verifying household addresses, a critical undertaking that was supposed to make the 2020 Census more cost-effective and accurate. And more broadly, the Trump administration’s hardline rhetoric and executive orders cracking down on undocumented immigrants may already be creating a major new risk for the census, making members of minority and immigrant communities less likely to respond. “If you imagine that the federal government is asking for personal information and you feel that the federal government is hostile and that if you were to answer this, perhaps they would use this against you,” said Terry Ao Minnis, director of the census and voting programs at Asian Americans Advancing Justice. “That of course will make people less inclined to participate.”

Lindsey Rupp, Lauren Coleman-Lochner, and Nick Turner report that America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever: “Extrapolating out to the full year, there could be 8,640 store closings in 2017, Buss said. That would be higher than the 2008 peak of about 6,200. Retail defaults are contributing to the trend. Payless is closing 400 stores as part of a bankruptcy plan announced on Tuesday. The mammoth chain had roughly 4,000 locations and 22,000 employees — more than it needs to handle sluggish demand. HHGregg Inc., Gordmans Stores Inc. and Gander Mountain Co. all entered bankruptcy this year. RadioShack, meanwhile, filed for Chapter 11 for the second time in two years. Other companies are plowing ahead with store closures outside of bankruptcy court. Sears Holdings Corp., Macy’s Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. are shutting hundreds of locations combined, reeling from an especially punishing slump in the department-store industry.”

Shawn Boburg and Robert O’Harrow Jr. describe How Bannon’s multimedia machine drove a movement and paid him millions: “A Washington Post examination found that Bannon was able to produce more than a dozen conservative documentaries over the past decade by drawing on a network of two dozen nonprofit organizations and private companies. Bannon helped arrange donations from wealthy Republicans to the nonprofits that paid him for films and other work, documents show. At the same time, Bannon and his firms took in at least $2 million from the nonprofits and an additional $5?million from the private companies, records show. Bannon, who had already made millions on Wall Street, often was paid in multiple ways for each project — a common practice in Hollywood, where he had worked as an entertainment financier. Because he was paid through the nonprofit and private companies, which have limited obligations to disclose details about their activities, the total pay to Bannon remains unknown. In a personal financial disclosure released by the White House last month, Bannon reported his net worth as between $11.8 million and $53.8 million. Bannon, the White House and Schweizer did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Tax specialists told The Post that some of Bannon’s activities raise questions about compliance with Internal Revenue Service restrictions against using tax­exempt charities to attack a political candidate or for excessive personal financial benefit.”

Simon Whistler presents The Rubber Band: Holding It Together Since 1820:

Good morning.

Palm Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-three. Sunrise is 6:21 AM and sunset 7:31 PM, for 13h 10m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97% of its visible disk illuminated. Today is the {tooltip}one hundred fifty-second day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}

On this day in 1865, Lee surrenders to Grant. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were among the troops that had helped corner Lee there. The 36th were present to witness the formal surrender ceremony.

Recommended for reading in full —

Margaret Sullivan observes that The media loved Trump’s show of military might. Are we really doing this again?: ““Guest after guest is gushing. From MSNBC to CNN, Trump is receiving his best night of press so far,” wrote Sam Sacks, a Washington podcaster and journalist. “And all he had to do was start a war.” Why do so many in the news media love a show of force? “There is no faster way to bring public support than to pursue military action,” said Ken Paulson, head of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center. “It’s a pattern not only in American history, but in world history. We rally around the commander in chief — and that’s understandable.” Paulson noted that the news media also “seem to get bored with their own narrative” about Trump’s failings, and they welcome a chance to switch it up. But that’s not good enough, he said: “The watchdog has to have clear vision and not just a sporadic bark.”

(This is true of successful criticism: it begins and exhibits periods of a sporadic bark’s maneuver, but it prevails though a clear vision’s attrition. See, along these lines, What Grant’s Overland Campaign Teaches for Grave Political Conflict.)

Former GOP Congressman Mickey Edwards exclaims Stand Up, Paul Ryan, or Step Aside: “The toadiness of the legislative leadership, and the low regard in which it is held by the president’s entourage, have led to such previously unimaginable scenes as Stephen Bannon, a senior White House staff member, giving orders to members of Congress and demanding a copy of the leadership’s secret vote counts to create an enemies list for possible reprisals. Mr. Bannon should have been ordered to leave the Capitol. Again, it was Speaker Ryan’s job at that moment to assert the independence and equal status of the legislative branch. Instead, he obsequiously ran downtown to see the boss.”

(Local publications like the Janesville Gazette have cosseted Janesville resident Paul Ryan for years, but their gentle petting has ill-prepared Ryan for defending his institution against men like Bannon.)

Jeremy Peters contends that Bannon’s Views Can Be Traced to a Book That Warns, ‘Winter Is Coming’: “The book, “The Fourth Turning,” a 1997 work by two amateur historians, Neil Howe and William Strauss, lays out a theory that American history unfurls in predictable, 80-year cycles of prosperity and catastrophe. And it foresees catastrophe right around the corner….But those who question Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon’s motives say the central premise of “The Fourth Turning,” with its religious subtext and dark premonitions, is a convenient excuse to sow fear and justify extreme action. Many academic historians dismiss the book as about as scientific as astrology or a Nostradamus text. And many will find reason for alarm in its conclusion that the coming crisis will demand loyalty and conformity from citizens.”

(It’s worth noting that Bannon’s ideas derive from several, but equally fringe, theories.)

Joshua Partlow reports that The Soviet Union fought the Cold War in Nicaragua. Now Putin’s Russia is back: “Three decades after this tiny Central American nation became the prize in a Cold War battle with Washington, Russia is once again planting its flag in Nicaragua. Over the past two years, the Russian government has added muscle to its security partnership here, selling tanks and weapons, sending troops, and building facilities intended to train Central American forces to fight drug trafficking. The Russian surge appears to be part of the Kremlin’s expansionist foreign policy. In other parts of the world, President Vladimir Putin’s administration has deployed fighter planes to help Syria’s war-battered government and stepped up peace efforts in Afghanistan, in addition to annexing the Crimean Peninsula and supporting separatists in Ukraine.”

Here’s a video from You Suck at Cooking that tackles tomato sauce: