Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-one.  Sunrise is 6:01 AM and sunset 7:45 PM, for 13h 43m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 2.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Unified School District will hold an electronic public forum for the finalists for district administrator (Dr. Caroline Pate-Hefty, Ms. Kellie Bohn). The forum, from 6 – 8:30 PM, is available via Zoom or phone. Whitewater’s common council also meets electronically tonight, at 6:30 PM.

 Naturalist John Muir is born on this day in 1838.

Recommended for reading in full —

 Catherine Rampell writes Trump has almost nothing to lose. That’s why he wants to reopen the economy:

Public health experts worry that “reopening” the country too soon will be bad for public health. Economists worry it will be bad for the economy. The general public worries it will bad for, well, everyone.

So why is President Trump agitating to do so anyway, even encouraging insurrection against his own administration’s stay-at-home guidance?

Because it’s the only Hail Mary chance he has at reelection. And, sure, it probably won’t pay off. But just as he’s done his entire life, Trump has no problem gambling with other people’s money and well-being — even if the stakes could be fatal.

Andrew Romano reports Most Americans reject anti-lockdown protests:

An overwhelming majority of Americans, Republicans included, are rejecting right-wing protests — encouraged by President Trump — to immediately “reopen” the country in the midst of the world’s largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

The survey, conducted April 17 to April 19, found that a full 60 percent of the public opposes the largely pro-Trump protesters whose calls for governors to “liberate” their states by lifting lockdown measures have attracted intense media attention in recent days — and whose message the president amplified Friday in a series of all-caps “LIBERATE” tweets about three swing states: Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia.

Only 22 percent of Americans say they support the protesters. Despite Trump’s messaging, even Republicans oppose the protests 47 percent to 36 percent. Asked whether they agree or disagree with Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets, only a quarter of Americans say they agree.

Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins report Conservative activist family behind ‘grassroots’ anti-quarantine Facebook events:

A family-run network of pro-gun groups is behind five of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to protesting the shelter-in-place restrictions, according to an NBC News analysis of Facebook groups and website registration information.

The groups were set up by four brothers — Chris, Ben, Aaron and Matthew Dorr — and have amassed more than 200,000 members collectively, including in states where they don’t reside, according to an NBC News analysis based on public records searches and Facebook group registrations.

The Dorr brothers are known in conservative circles for running pro-gun and anti-abortion rights Facebook groups that bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually by antagonizing establishment conservative leaders and activists.

Their usual method is to attack established conservative groups from the right, including the National Rifle Association, and then make money by selling memberships in their groups or selling mailing lists of those who sign up, according to some conservative politicians and activists who have labeled the efforts as scams.

How ‘Trolls World Tour’ Lets the Dogs Out:

Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of sixty-one.  Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:44 PM, for 13h 41m 17s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 6.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets via electronic conferencing at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1972,  the Apollo 16 lunar module lands on the moon.

Recommended for reading in full —

 John Cassidy writes There Is No Panacea for the Coronavirus Economy:

But there is general agreement among economists that even under optimistic scenarios, where the rate of infection doesn’t shoot back up immediately, restoring the economy to health is going to be an extended and difficult task. “Absent a vaccine or treatment breakthrough, reopening will be gradual,” the economists at Goldman Sachs wrote this week. “Several other countries have taken steps toward reopening. We see three lessons from their experiences. First, initial reopening timelines often prove too optimistic. Second, even countries at the forefront of reopening have gradual and conservative plans. Third, recovery is easier and quicker in manufacturing and construction than in consumer services.”

Today’s American economy is predominantly a service economy, of course. Private-service industries, such as retail, finance, lodging, entertainment, and restaurants, contribute close to seventy per cent of the gross domestic product. Even if some restaurants do defy Romer’s prediction and reopen, they will have to meet social-distancing requirements, which will reduce their capacity. The same goes for airlines, hotels, gyms, and many other businesses. “No amount of stimulus spending is going to change those realities,” Shepherdson said. He is predicting that G.D.P. will plummet at an annualized rate of thirty per cent in the April-to-June quarter, before rebounding somewhat, but not fully, in the second half of the year. For 2020 as a whole, Goldman Sachs is predicting that G.D.P. will decline by more than five per cent.

Theresa Vargas writes Maybe you’ve noticed more wildlife around you lately. The reasons might have less to do with animals than people:

“People are out and about at times of the day they weren’t out before,” Jennifer Toussaint, the chief of animal control at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, says when I call her. “They were sitting in an office somewhere, so they didn’t notice that three deer come through their backyard at 11 o’clock each day.”

Animals spend years creating set paths that they follow to stay safe, she says. They probably haven’t changed their routines, but people have. And as a result, people are now getting to see what has always been happening around their neighborhoods.

What Social Distance Looks Like Across the World:

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of fifty-six.  Sunrise is 6:04 AM and sunset 7:42 PM, for 13h 38m 36s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 11.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1775, the Revolutionary War begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Recommended for reading in full —

 Noah Smith writes The Lockdown Is Tough. Ending It Too Soon Would Be Worse (‘The likely result will be a resurgence in coronavirus cases, new shutdowns and even deeper economic pain’):

President Donald Trump’s approach to the issue of coronavirus lockdowns has been characterized by a series of unsettling overreaches and reversals. In late March, Trump declared that he wanted to end U.S. lockdowns by Easter. A few days later the president reversed his statement and extended federal guidelines for shutdowns through the end of April. This week, Trump briefly attempted to assert presidential authority to order states to end their lockdowns, but after it became clear that this probably was unconstitutional, he backed down and declared that he wouldn’t interfere with state and regional reopening plans. At a press briefing today [4.16] Trump gave his blessing to governors to go ahead with their own plans, issuing guidelines for recommending when each state or region should reopen. It’s a step in the right direction.

Some voices continue to call for the economy to reopen quickly in spite of the mortal danger of the pandemic. Indiana Representative Trey Hollingsworth recently asserted that the many American deaths that would result would be the “lesser of…two evils” compared with the economic cost of continued lockdowns. Investor Michael Burry, famed for shorting the housing bubble of the early 2000s, has claimed there is “no justification” for current policies. And protesters in Michigan, Ohio and elsewhere have demanded immediate reopening.

These voices are dangerously wrong. Even with most of the nation under lockdown as of the end of March, U.S. deaths have climbed to more than 34,000 and are forecast to surpass 60,000 — more Americans than died in the Vietnam War and many times the number who died in the War on Terror. Without lockdowns, epidemiologists predict that deaths could reach into the hundreds of thousands and possibly claim more lives than any war in the country’s history. And that doesn’t even include the long-term damage to the lungs and other organs of many who survive the disease.

But weighing these staggering human costs against the supposed economic benefits of a quick reopening relies on a crucial and flawed assumption — that economic conditions would rapidly go back to normal if only governments allowed people out of their houses. The truth is much grimmer.

 S.V. Date reports Trump Campaign Secretly Paying $180,000 A Year To His Sons’ Significant Others:

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of eldest son Donald Trump Jr., and Lara Trump, wife of middle son Eric Trump, are each receiving $15,000 a month, according to two GOP sources who are informal White House advisers and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They were unsure when the payments began but say they are being made by campaign manager Bradley Parscale through his company rather than directly by either the campaign or the party in order to avoid public reporting requirements.

The Beekeeper Making Electronic Music With Bees:

Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of fifty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:05 AM and sunset 7:41 PM, for 13h 35m 53s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 18.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1943, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

Recommended for reading in full —

Austin Carr and Chris Palmeri report Carnival Executives Knew They Had a Virus Problem, But Kept the Party Going (‘More than 1,500 people on the company’s cruise ships have been diagnosed with Covid-19, and dozens have died’):

Carnival’s ships have become a floating testament to the viciousness of the new coronavirus and raised questions about corporate negligence and fleet safety. President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald says his company’s response was reasonable under the circumstances. “This is a generational global event—it’s unprecedented,” he says. “Nothing’s perfect, OK? They will say, ‘Wow, these things Carnival did great. These things, 20/20 hindsight, they could’ve done better.’?”

Donald says that if his company failed to prepare for the pandemic, it failed in the same way that many national and local governments failed, and should be judged accordingly. “Each ship is a mini-city,” he says, and Carnival’s response shouldn’t be condemned before “analyzing what New York did to deal with the crisis, what the vice president’s task force did, what the Italians, Chinese, South Koreans, and Japanese did. We’re a small part of the real story. We’re being pulled along by it.”

In the view of the CDC, however, Carnival helped fuel the crisis. “Maybe that excuse flies after the Diamond Princess, or maybe after the Grand Princess,” says Cindy Friedman, the experienced epidemiologist who leads the CDC’s cruise ship task force. “I have a hard time believing they’re just a victim of happenstance.”

While it would have been tough to get everyone aboard the ships back to their home ports without infecting more people, Friedman says several of the plagued Carnival ships didn’t even begin their voyages until well after the company knew it was risky to do so. She says its actions created a “huge strain” on the country. “Nobody should be going on cruise ships during this pandemic, full stop,” she says.

Michael Gerson writes The dangerous conservative campaign against expertise:

The main failures we have seen in the coronavirus response have not been caused by excessive confidence in experts. Our problems have been rooted in the failure of political leaders to treat the warnings of experts with sufficient seriousness, and to act on those warnings with sufficient urgency. It was the president who publicly dismissed the disease as a minor annoyance when other members of his administration knew that to be untrue. It was the president who characterized pandemic awareness as a political conspiracy during wasted weeks. It was the president who spouted misinformation about the disease and its treatment while horrified experts stood beside him.

From the beginning, flattening the curve was going to require heroic measures to achieve mixed results. That is the nature of reality, not a commentary on public health expertise. The experts have earned our trust. And continued progress depends on believing them.

Quarantine Cooking Show: Spaghetti Carbonara: