Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 57.  Sunrise is 6:16 AM and sunset 5:53 PM, for 11h 37m 24s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 24.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1775, an anonymous writer, thought by many to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America,” the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Jim Tankersley reports To Juice the Economy, Biden Bets on the Poor (‘Mr. Biden’s bottom-up $1.9 trillion aid package is a sharp reversal from the tax cut bill that was President Donald J. Trump’s first big legislative victory’):

To jump-start the ailing economy, President Biden is turning to the lowest-paid workers in America, and to the people who are currently unable to work at all.

Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief package, which cleared the Senate on Saturday and could be headed for the president’s signature in a matter of days, would overwhelmingly help low earners and the middle class, with little direct aid for the high earners who have largely kept their jobs and padded their savings over the past year.

For the president, the plan is more than just a stimulus proposal. It is a declaration of his economic policy — one that captures the principle Democrats and liberal economists have espoused over the past decade: that the best way to stoke faster economic growth is from the bottom up.

Mr. Biden’s approach in his first major economic legislation is in stark contrast to President Donald J. Trump’s, whose initial effort in Congress was a tax-cut package in 2017 that largely benefited corporations and wealthier Americans.

(Quick observations: (1) the case against spending is obviously stronger in good conditions, (2) we are admittedly not yet in good conditions, (3) by contrast Trump’s tax-cut package came needlessly in relatively good national conditions, (4) Trump inherited a long expansion that brought those relatively good national conditions, (5) the Trump plan was a redistribution scheme on behalf of Trump’s well-placed, special-interest constituencies, (6) Trump’s deservedly bad reputation on economics – trade wars, favoritism for the fortunate, etc. – has wrecked the case against spending for those of us who are neither ignorant nor corrupt, (7) Biden might and should have spent less, but the child-centric portions of the package are rightly focused and welcome, and (8) Whitewater notably and distressingly has struggled for years as a low-wage community with high child poverty.)

Kimberly Wehle writes MyPillow CEO Turned the Big Lie into Big Bucks, Lawsuit Alleges (‘Dominion suit claims Mike Lindell paid pro-Trump outlets to air lies and reel in gullible customers for his company’):

Among a litany of public statements against Dominion, the complaint alleges that Lindell knowingly lied on air about having “raw data analytics” that would demonstrate “a cyber footprint from inside [Dominion’s] machines” that was “going to show that Donald Trump won.” Worse, Lindell complained that he was being attacked by the left for speaking the truth, a lie-upon-a-lie that duped Trump supporters into buying pillows as an act of compassion, retaliation, and/or patriotism.

We all know why this is bad stuff. Even Mitch McConnell has acknowledged that the Big Lie harmed American democracy. But Dominion’s lawsuit makes clear that the Big Lie is also a cash cow for scam artists—after all, in the eight short weeks following the November 3 election, it moved $255.4 million from the bank accounts of Trump supporters into the coffers of the Trump campaign and the Republican party. For this lurid reason, the Big Lie is not going away anytime soon.

Inside polar bear dens:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 46.  Sunrise is 6:18 AM and sunset 5:52 PM, for 11h 34m 29s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 33.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone.

Recommended for reading in full — 

Emily Giambalvo and Rick Maese report Big Ten presidents kept return-to-school, football communications out of public eye:

When the presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities began discussing the prospects of students returning to their campuses last fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and with football season looming, they weighed many considerations, from public health to financial impact.

But emails obtained by The Washington Post through public records requests reveal another priority: keeping their discussions from ever entering public view.

“I would be delighted to share information,” Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank responded in an email chain begun in August by Michigan President Mark Schlissel, “but perhaps we can do this through the Big 10 portal, which will assure confidentiality?”

The next day, Schlissel told his colleagues: “Just FYI — I am working with Big Ten staff to move the conversation to secure Boardvantage web site we use for league materials. Will advise.”

….

The apparent attempt to avoid public scrutiny alarmed public records experts, who voiced concern over the possibility that the leaders of 13 of the nation’s richest public institutions (Northwestern is the only private school in the conference) are taking steps to avoid scrutiny from the taxpayers who fund their universities.

“The idea that government officials would intentionally use a technological platform, seemingly with the intent of evading public records laws, is both troubling and wrong on the law,” said Adam Marshall, a senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

(Blank should be required to testify under oath before the Wisconsin Legislature.)

Karen Attiah writes Living in Texas right now feels like an exercise in survival: 

The Texas GOP’s necropolitics have been on full display during this pandemic year. Last March, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that grandparents in Texas should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the state’s economy. When Abbott reopened the state in May, the move quickly resulted in a spike of cases, and he was forced to backtrack….

It’s hard not to roll one’s eyes at Abbott’s lecturing — he reportedly wasn’t even responsible enough to directly consult with expert members of his own coronavirus task force before deciding to reopen. Then, once criticism rolled in, he tried to scapegoat immigrants crossing the border as the reason for the spread of covid-19 in Texas. It’s all of a piece with Sen. Ted Cruz’s reprehensible decision to book a vacation to Cancún, Mexico, last month while Texans were literally freezing to death as the energy grid collapsed. The Texas GOP’s song and dance is familiar: Elected Texas officials fail to act to advance the well-being of their constituents, while ordinary Texans are reminded of our “personal responsibility.”

(It is a childish lack of personal responsibility that animates Trumpism — a hypocritical separation of words and actions. It’s the language of maturity but actions of destructive immaturity. They imagine themselves strong the way a screeching child imagines himself strong: only in his own mind.)

How Used Chopsticks Are Turned Into Tables, Tiles, and Other Furniture:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 41.  Sunrise is 6:19 AM and sunset 5:51 PM, for 11h 31m 35s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 44.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1899, Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Natalie Yahr reports Kattia Jimenez of Mount Horeb Hemp is out to grow opportunities:

In 2017, as Wisconsin considered legalizing hemp farming for the first time in nearly 50 years, Kattia Jimenez waited for her chance.

After spending years traversing the country to lead health studies for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jimenez was ready to give up the traveling life and return full time to her Mount Horeb home. She’d gotten interested in hemp while growing up in Seattle — home to hemp stores and the largest hemp festival in the country — and she was eager to turn her own fields to the crop.

Wisconsin once led the nation in industrial hemp production, with the plant’s fibers in high demand to make rope in World War II. But the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which classified both hemp and its intoxicating cousin marijuana as Schedule I drugs, had effectively banned the industry for half a century.

Ana Swanson reports U.S. and Europe Will Suspend Tariffs on Alcohol, Food, and Airplanes:

The United States and European Union agreed to temporarily suspend tariffs levied on billions of dollars of each others’ aircraft, wine, food and other products as both sides try to find a negotiated settlement to a long-running dispute over the two leading airplane manufacturers.

President Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, agreed in a phone call on Friday to suspend all tariffs imposed in the dispute over subsidies given to Boeing and Airbus for “an initial period of four months,” Ms. von der Leyen said in a statement.

“This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come,” she said.

….

“Finally, we are emerging from the trade war between the United States and Europe, which created only losers,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said on Twitter. He added that a burden would be lifted for French winegrowers, whose sales have been pummeled by steep retaliatory tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on imports to the United States.

Harriet Serwood reports Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Sistani call for unity at Iraq meeting:

Pope Francis, 84, the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, 90, the spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shia Muslims, talked for almost an hour during the first ever papal visit to Iraq, the pontiff’s first trip abroad since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sistani, dressed in black, “affirmed his concern that Christian citizens should live like all Iraqis in peace and security, and with their full constitutional rights”, according to a statement.

Francis, dressed in white, thanked Sistani for having “raised his voice in defence of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history, the Vatican said.

Neither man wore a face mask during the intimate encounter at Sistani’s modest rented home in the holy city of Najaf, despite a recent rise in Covid infections in Iraq. Francis has been vaccinated against the virus, but Sistani has not.

The pope removed his shoes before entering Sistani’s room. The Muslim cleric, who normally remains seated for visitors, stood to greet Francis at the door of his room – a rare honour.

NASA Shows Perseverance Rover’s First Successful Drive on Mars:

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 43.  Sunrise is 6:21 AM and sunset 5:50 PM, for 11h 25m 46s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 56.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1946, Churchill uses the phrase iron curtain in his speech (The Sinews of Peace) at Westminster College, Missouri.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 David Leonhardt writes Voting rights or the filibuster? Democrats will probably have to choose:

Republican legislators in dozens of states are trying to make voting more difficult, mostly because they believe that lower voter turnout helps their party win elections. (They say it’s to stop voter fraud, but widespread fraud doesn’t exist.) The Supreme Court, with six Republican appointees among the nine justices, has generally allowed those restrictions to stand.

“I don’t say this lightly,” Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida, recently wrote. “We are witnessing the greatest roll back of voting rights in this country since the Jim Crow era.”

The only meaningful way for Democrats to respond is through federal legislation, like the voting-rights bill that the House passed on Wednesday. Among other things, it would require states to register many eligible voters automatically; allow others to register on Election Day; hold at least 15 days of early voting; expand voting by mail; and allow people with completed criminal sentences to vote. The bill also requires more disclosure of campaign donations and restricts partisan gerrymandering.

But the bill seems to have no chance of winning the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a filibuster. The Senate is divided 50-50 between the two parties (including two independents, who usually vote with Democrats). The bill will pass only if all 50 Senate Democrats agree to scrap or alter the filibuster, as they have the power to do.

Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff, and Silvia Foster-Frau report Texas family detention centers expected to transform into rapid-processing hubs:

The Biden administration is preparing to convert its immigrant family detention centers in South Texas into Ellis Island-style rapid-processing hubs that will screen migrant parents and children with a goal of releasing them into the United States within 72 hours, according to Department of Homeland Security draft plans obtained by The Washington Post.

….

“We welcome the change, because the detention of families — we never thought that was a good system or a good policy at all,” said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, an immigration legal aid organization in Texas. “They shouldn’t be detained, and they should be given the opportunity to go before the immigration judge and be released in the community and not held like prisoners.”

(Yes, a thousand times over: free movement of people, capital, or goods.)

Tom Haudricourt reports Brewers will open 2021 season with 25% capacity of fans at American Family Field but no tailgating:

The Milwaukee Brewers expect to have between 11,000 and 12,000 fans in the stands at American Family Field when they open their 2021 season April 1 against the Minnesota Twins.

The Brewers announced Thursday morning they had reached agreement with the City of Milwaukee Health Department to begin the season at 25% capacity. They had requested 35% capacity in a 500-page health and safety report submitted to health officials last month.

The shortened 60-game season in 2020 was played with no fans in the stands because of the spreading coronavirus pandemic. MLB teams have put strict protocols in place and have agreed to seat fans in small groups, or pods, if allowed to have a certain percentage at games this season.

Facebook takes down hundreds of fake Russian Instagram accounts:

Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 38.  Sunrise is 6:23 AM and sunset 5:49 PM, for 11h 25m 46s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 67.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets via audiovisual conferencing at 3:30 PM, and the Whitewater Fire Department holds a business meeting via audiovisual conferencing at 6:30 PM. 

 On this day in 1933,  Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States. He was the last president to be inaugurated on March 4.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Molly Beck reports As Republicans welcome maskless crowd, Democrats say those following COVID-19 precautions are essentially shut out of government process:

We are nearly a year into this pandemic, and this is what we are seeing in the state capitol today: no masks, no social distancing, and no safety precautions for the staff who have no choice but to be in the building. This is reckless and dangerous. pic.twitter.com/Q7ic76xP2y

— Senator Melissa Agard (@senator_melissa) March 3, 2021

MADISON – Assembly leaders packed dozens of maskless adults and children into a small hearing room in the Wisconsin State Capitol on Wednesday in the latest sign that Republicans who control the legislative process do not plan to adopt COVID-19 mitigation rules.

The crowd of people gathering together without face masks is again ringing alarm bells for Democratic lawmakers who say the behavior puts Capitol workers’ health at risk and discourages people from participating in the democratic process.

“This is not allowing the public who wants to be able to engage with government to be able to engage with government in a safe way,” Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, said Wednesday.

The lack of face masks pushed at least one Democratic member of the committee who is not fully vaccinated to avoid the meeting and watch the proceedings by livestream.

  Alexis Madrigal writes A Simple Rule of Thumb for Knowing When the Pandemic Is Over:

“The question is not when do we eliminate the virus in the country,” said Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center and an expert in virology and immunology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Rather, it’s when do we have the virus sufficiently under control? “We’ll have a much, much lower case count, hospitalization count, death count,” Offit said. “What is that number that people are comfortable with?” In his view, “the doors will open” when the country gets to fewer than 5,000 new cases a day, and fewer than 100 deaths.

That latter threshold, of 100 COVID-19 deaths a day, was repeated by other experts, following the logic that it approximates the nation’s average death toll from influenza. In most recent years, the flu has killed 20,000 to 50,000 Americans annually, which averages out to 55 to 140 deaths a day, said Joseph Eisenberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. “This risk was largely considered acceptable by the public,” Eisenberg said. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist at UC San Francisco, made a similar calculation. “The end to the emergency portion of the pandemic in the United States should be heralded completely by the curtailing of severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19,” she said. “Fewer than 100 deaths a day—to mirror the typical mortality of influenza in the U.S. over a typical year—is an appropriate goal.”

See Mars, Betelgeuse, Jupiter and Saturn in March 2021:

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 45.  Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 5:47 PM, for 11h 22m 52s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 77.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 2005, Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.

Recommended for reading in full — 

 Moustafa Bayoumi writes ICE reached a new low: using utility bills to hunt undocumented immigrants:

If you had to choose between having running water at home or risking your home being raided by the authorities, which would you choose? The correct answer is: this shouldn’t even be a question.

But it’s become one. The startling truth is that signing up for even basic utilities in this country has turned into a gamble for many people, particularly undocumented immigrants. Last week, the Washington Post revealed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] has paid tens of millions of dollars since 2017 for access to a private database that contains more than “400m names, addresses and service records from more than 80 utility companies covering all the staples of modern life, including water, gas and electricity, and phone, internet and cable TV”. The information has been mined by Ice, the Post reported, for immigration surveillance and enforcement operations.

Neither [ICE] nor any other federal agency should have unfettered access to this data. In fact, there are strict protocols and regulations that determine how the federal government can gather your information and when it can infringe on your privacy, much of this is codified in the Privacy Act of 1974, as the Post notes. So how are federal agencies like Ice getting around these legal safeguards, which would otherwise prevent them from scooping up such data on their own and without a court order? Simple. They just buy it. With taxpayer money.

Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein report Abandon Trump? Deep in the G.O.P. Ranks, the MAGA Mind-Set Prevails:

In Cleveland County, Okla., the chairman of the local Republican Party openly wondered “why violence is unacceptable,” just hours before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last week. “What the crap do you think the American revolution was?” he posted on Facebook. “A game of friggin pattycake?”

….

Interviews with more than 40 Republican state and local leaders conducted after the siege at the Capitol show that a vocal wing of the party maintains an almost-religious devotion to the president, and that these supporters don’t hold him responsible for the mob violence last week. The opposition to him emerging among some Republicans has only bolstered their support of him.

And while some Republican leaders and strategists are eager to dismiss these loyalists as a fringe element of their party, many of them hold influential roles at the state and local level. These local officials are not only the conduits between voters and federal Republicans, but they also serve as the party’s next generation of higher-level elected officials, and would bring a devotion to Trumpism should they ascend to Washington.

 Apple Car: Here’s What We Know So Far: