Good morning. 
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 5:17 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 20m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 92.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1943, future senator Joseph McCarthy breaks his leg during a drunken Marine Corps initiation ceremony, despite a press release and other claims that he was hurt in “military action.”
Recommended for reading in full —
Will Carless reports They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism:
KENOSHA, Wis. — Daniel Berry says he was searching for camaraderie.
The 40-year-old Army veteran yearned to forge the sort of bonds he had in the military: a brotherhood of like-minded men watching one another’s backs, holding one another up, united in a common goal.
Last year, Berry said, he remembered a guy at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall asking him if he had heard of the Proud Boys. The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald Trump, whom Berry had voted for. They called themselves “Western chauvinists” and said they welcomed true men. That sounded about right for Berry, who considers himself a dyed-in-the-wool patriot.
He did some internet searches and sent off an email. Almost immediately, he received a link to an encrypted chat room.
And so began Berry’s journey into the dark world of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys.
Berry, along with a member of the Wisconsin Proud Boys and another former recruit, told USA TODAY the group is a den of racism and antisemitism. Moving up within the group, they said, is dependent on sadistically bullying potential members and promoting white supremacist talking points.
Berry and two other men, who asked not to be named because they fear violent repercussions from members ofthe Proud Boys, provided a unique view into an organization that has become a magnet for racists and violent extremists. They spoke and emailed with USA TODAY independently, providing screenshots of chatrooms, photos, memes and audio recordings that backed up their claims.
Their accounts reveal the face of a group that masks itself as a harmless, multiracial drinking club, one that reaches new members by preaching free speech and patriotism. At least in Wisconsin, the men said, the Proud Boys stands less for brotherhood and more for the racial hatred espoused by outmoded organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.
“Initially it was truly a brotherhood,” Berry said. “But what I experienced was more like a cult.”
Catherine Rampell writes Manchin got Republicans to admit to the ‘big lie.’ Democrats should celebrate:
In a memo, Manchin proposed building upon parts of the For the People Act and a narrower bill, known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, with a few amendments. His proposal would make Election Day a public holiday, require two weeks of early voting, automatically register voters through motor vehicle departments and eliminate partisan gerrymandering. It’s not everything Democrats want — and has some oversights — but it addresses most of the party’s goals for promoting free and fair elections.
Perhaps more important, from a political standpoint: Manchin’s compromise completely undercuts Republicans’ case for blocking reform.
It does this by including new requirements to safeguard election security, which is — or was — the top priority of Republicans concerned by “questions” the 2020 election supposedly raised.
Could 3D printed ivory save elephants?:
(The market solution here is to reduce the cost of production and increase the cultural demand preference for digitally-produced ivory over natural products.)