Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 60. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset is 6:51 for 11 hours 35 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 75.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1979, Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
How’s the economy doing? Not well:
“WOW! The Golden Age of America is upon us!!!” Trump posted on social media Feb. 11 after the monthly jobs report showed gains of 130,000 jobs in January.
Since then, the job market has evaporated in worrisome ways.
Friday’s employment report showed job losses of 92,000 in February. The January and December figures were revised downward, with December swinging to a loss of 17,000 jobs. Monthly data can be rocky, but a trend has emerged that shows an enduring weakness. Without the health care sector, the economy would have shed roughly 202,000 jobs since Trump became president in January 2025.
[…]The president has repeatedly told Americans that keeping gas costs low would be key to defeating inflation. He has talked up the decline, citing figures that were far below the national average to assure the public that driving was getting cheaper.
But the strikes against Iran that began Feb. 28 have, for the moment, crushed that narrative. Prices at the pump have jumped 19% over the past month to a national average of $3.45, according to AAA. The investment bank Goldman Sachs warned in an analyst note that, if higher oil prices persist, inflation could rise from its 2.4% reading in January to 3% by the end of the year.
[…]“Under the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, meaning low growth and high inflation — a recipe for misery, failure and decline,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
The scoreboard tells a far different story, one that makes Biden’s track record in 2024 look better than Trump’s performance last year. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% pace during Biden’s last year, compared with 2.2% under Trump in 2025.
See Josh Boak, Trump’s ‘roaring’ economy meets a rough start to 2026: What the latest numbers show, Associated Press, March 8, 2026.
And look, and look, these promises of economic success from the man who lost money in the casino industry were always dubious beyond the point of the ludicrous. Touting Mr. Trump’s record has never been about the accuracy of his claims; touting Mr. Trump’s record has always been about applying a thin veneer of economics to a thick mix of cultural warfare for his base and grifting for insiders.
Critiquing Mr. Trump’s record isn’t about persuading the minority that still believes in him; it’s about reminding others that the majority of Americans sensibly see through his claims.
Video shows a tornado in Michigan destroying homes in its path: