Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will see afternoon showers with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:45 and sunset is 8:16 for 14 hours 33 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1964, Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes:
The photographs returned from the probe found that the Moon was most likely “very craggy and rocky with debris everywhere.” After speaking to the media, NASA officials were peppered with the obvious question – did the Moon have a surface solid enough that humans could safely land on it? Geologist Gerard Kuiper replied that judging by the images, it seemed likely that at least some of the Moon was smooth enough to land a spacecraft on. However, the actual hardness of the surface couldn’t be determined with certainty until a soft landing was made. Nonetheless, Ranger 7’s images did seem to suggest that it was solid enough.
While the Trump administration has promised 5 to 6 percent economic growth, the latest result is… a far lower percentage:
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services, increased just 1.5% for the April-through-June period, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers adjusted for seasonality and inflation.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a growth rate of 1.8%, following the 2.1% increase in the first quarter.
A separate report showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Federal Reserve’s primary forecasting gauge, fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3.7%. The readings were in line with forecasts.
Excluding food and energy, core PCE posted a monthly increase of 0.1% and an annual level of 3.3%, against respective forecasts for 0.2% and 3.3%.
While the Fed technically uses the headline PCE number as its gauge for setting policy, most officials consider core inflation as a better indicator of longer-run trends.
See Jeff Cox, U.S. economy slowed to 1.5% growth rate in Q2; June core inflation at 3.3%, CNBC, July 30, 2026.
There is all kinds of big talk — as with Trump university, Trump steaks, whatever else — but small performance.
It’s worth noting that while that the federal administration’s tendency is to blame someone or something from the past for present poor performance (Biden, extraterrestrials, sunspots) yet the Trump administration made its promises knowing about those conditions from the past. Indeed, that was supposed to be the whole selling point: that they’d make improvements over those past leaders or events.
Yet again — another exaggerated claim.
If someone promised you sixty dollars, would you think that a mere fifteen fulfilled his pledge?
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Watch the Masterful Flight of Tree Swallows: