It’s the 81st D-Day Anniversary today.
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are dragging on.
And we are left with the smoldering wreckage of the Trump-Musk bromance.
‘I HATE MY X!‘ ‘says’ Trump of Musk on the cover of today’s New York Post .. and ‘Big, beautiful break-up—Trump-Elon bromance explodes into insults, threats*.
*X is formerly Twitter, now owned by Musk, from where he flung insults and allegations. (Trump fired back on his social media platform, called Truth Social). The big, beautiful is a reference to the The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, the massive and garbage federal bill proposed by Trump and his Republicans that includes tax cuts for the rich, debt ceiling increases, and changes to social programs. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that by Fiscal Year (FY) 2034 the bill would increase America’s debt by nearly $3 trillion.
Reporting from the New York Times. One wonders if Trump took even one turn at the wheel of this Tesla Model S. (Definitely not on a public road, but presidents ARE permitted to drive on private property, such as golf courses or within controlled estates.)
Here’s a cartoon from Friday’s South African daily newspaper Die Burger (‘The Citizen’).
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Trump: ‘Would you mind if one of my caddies tried?’ (The caddies are Ernie Els and Retief Goosen— professional South African golfers who were part of the delegation to the White House. ) The sidebar comment in the corner is: ‘It looks as if Cyril stayed out of the rough’.
AGOA stands for the African Growth and Opportunity Act agreement, signed in 2000, which allowed tariff-free exports to the United States for 32 African countries. On April 2, Trump had slapped a 31 % reciprocal tariff on South Africa (now on the 90-day pause). The USA’s universal 10 % tariff on overseas goods remains in place, also for South Africa. From aljazeera.com: While the two countries did not confirm a trade agreement at Wednesday’s meeting, Ramaphosa told reporters afterwards that the discussion was “a great success”. He added that he presented a framework for a trade deal to Trump, and the two agreed to continue having discussions to figure out the specifics of this deal.
South African daily newspaper ‘Die Burger’ (‘The Citizen’) reporting about the meeting in the White House between the South African delegation, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa. I added in some translations for the Afrikaans. This newspaper, and the BBC’s reporting, says that Ramaphosa ‘survived’ the attacks against him by not fighting it too vociferously, and by staying calm and by making a joke about offering a plane to the US. P.S. Trump formally (openly, brazenly) accepted the $400 million dollar jet gifted to him from Qatar today*. Does that make it official that he is the most corrupt president in America’s history— or was he that already, long before this? *The Foreign Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) states: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Here are the other South Africans that came with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House today.
John Steenhuisen: South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, who clarified political affiliations of individuals featured in a video presented by President Trump. Ernie Els (nickname “The Big Easy”) and Retief Goosen: Professional South African golfers who were part of the delegation and contributed to the discussion during the meeting. Johann Rupert: A prominent South African businessman who emphasized the broader issue of violence affecting all South Africans and proposed technological solutions to improve safety. Zingiswa Losi: A trade union leader who stressed that crime in South Africa affects all demographic groups, not just whites.
Here’s Erica L. Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs writing for the New York Times: The encounter in some ways echoed the February visit to the Oval Office by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Mr. Zelensky in front of TV cameras, cutting short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace.
The meeting with Mr. Ramaphosa on Wednesday was also striking because of the ways in which Mr. Trump dismissed attempts to push back on his fringe claims by those who knew most about them.
Mr. Trump scowled and dismissed Mr. Ramaphosa and his delegates during the meeting, including a Black woman who tried to explain that brutal crimes happen to Black people in the country as well.
By contrast, Mr. Trump joked around and listened attentively as Mr. Els, Mr. Goosen and Johann Rupert, a white South African billionaire, said crime was prevalent across the board in the nation, not just against white farmers.
Mr. Ramaphosa entered the meeting seemingly optimistic about maintaining a cordial conversation with Mr. Trump. He offered olive branches to Mr. Trump, including a book about golf. He complimented Mr. Trump’s décor in the Oval Office.
He even tried to joke with the president, who had become irate when a reporter asked him about a free plane from the Qatari government.
“I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Mr. Ramaphosa said to Mr. Trump.
“I wish you did,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.”
Mr. Trump seemed more intent on relaying the talking points from leaders of Afrikaner lobbying groups, who have traveled to the United States repeatedly over the years to gather support for their claims of persecution. When one of those groups met with Mr. Trump’s top aides this year, the White House identified them as “civil rights leaders.”
It was beautiful outside today (68°F/ 20°C).
I walked down to Capitol Hill library to return two books, where I found the latest issue of The Atlantic on the magazine rack, with some unsettling writing inside (see below).
In the upside-down place we find ourselves with the Trump administration, it’s almost a positive that his 42%-or-so approval rating after 100 days in office is the lowest of any modern US president.
P.S. The US stock market held up surprisingly well this week, and April’s jobs report showed a gain of 177,000 jobs, exceeding expectations. Unemployment remains steady at 4.2%, and average hourly earnings rose modestly.
Here are the headlines and taglines from inside: I Should Have Seen This Coming When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won. DAVID BROOKS —- The Hollow Men It takes a special talent to betray an entire worldview without missing a beat. GEORGE PACKER —- America’s Future Is Hungary MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished. ANNE APPLEBAUM —- Watching the Rise of a Dual State For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t. AZIZ HUQ
Three of us went down to Cal Anderson Park at noon, to protest in support of workers’ rights, and those of immigrants. (A panoply of other protestations were depicted on the posters that people had made). We joined the march to downtown that started at 2 pm.
The crowd that marched was not huge— reportedly somewhat over 1,000 people— and the protesters spanned two to three blocks as they walked.
We stepped out of the march by the Seattle Convention Center to look at the crowd and the rest of the protest signs. The marchers went further on down Pike Street, and turned on First Avenue to reach the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building.
Singapore must brace itself for more shocks to come, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in a recorded video on Friday (Apr 4), warning that the global calm and stability that once existed “will not return anytime soon”.
– Summary of a video posted on YouTube* by Mediacorp, a Singaporean public broadcast service.
*Look up “PM Lawrence Wong on implications of US tariffs for Singapore | Full video” on YouTube. It’s just 5 minutes— but it’s also a 5-bell fire alarm.
So .. I really did not find tonight’s Saturday Night Live cold open skit with James Austin Johnson as Trump unveiling his tariffs, funny.
Maybe the US stock market indexes need to sink another 5% on Monday, and then 5% more on Tuesday.
Will enough Republican senators and Republican House members then stand up and do something?
President Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) addresses his tariffs and their impact on the stock market during a speech. [Still from tonight’s Saturday Night Live cold open]
I went to the Seattle Public Library today, which is where I found the latest issue of The Economist— the one below, with the Cybertruck bashing a bald eagle.
About Musk, the editorial inside asks ‘Is he remaking America’s government, or breaking it?’
Towards the end, the editorial concludes ‘There are three possible outcomes.
First, just as rivals laughed at Tesla and SpaceX in their early days, DOGE* will come good in time.
Second, that Mr Musk will break the government.
The third, likeliest scenario is that DOGE become snarled up in court; many good civil servants are fired or quit; fewer talented people see government as a good career; and America is left with a stronger president and a weaker Congress.’
*Dept. of Government Efficiency.
Cybertruck = Musk Bald eagle= US government .. and Trump and Musk are inside the Cybertruck, right? P.S. Tesla’s 2025 Q1 delivery numbers are due out tomorrow. Most analysts’ estimates are between 315,000-369,000, which would be well below Q1 2024’s 386,810.
The central bank’s decision to hold interest rates at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent extends a pause that has been in place since January, following a series of cuts in late 2024 that lowered borrowing costs by a percentage point.
When — and to some extent whether — the Fed ultimately follows through with cutting rates again this year remains dependent on Mr. Trump’s economic plans, including the sweeping tariffs he has threatened or imposed. Wednesday’s meeting marked the central bank’s most direct acknowledgment to date that the president’s policies are set to have a real impact on the economy.
–Colby Smith reporting from Washington for the New York Times
So you’re going to pay more for your new home mortgage, you car loan, your student loan, your credit card loan, the eggs, the bread, the milk, whatever you buy at the grocery store. Oh! — and a lot more for just about everything else you buy. The United States has entered into a trade war with Canada, Mexico and China (see below what bankrate.com says).
A recession is coming, this year or next.
Has to, with all this going on, right? I hope I’m wrong.
Bankrate.com on Mar. 4: Tariffs are a tax imposed on goods that the U.S. imports from other nations. President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, initially announced in February but delayed for a month, took effect Tuesday, along with an additional 10 percent tariff on goods from China. (In February, a 10 percent tariff went into effect on all imports from China.) Economists, supply chain analysts and tax experts interviewed by Bankrate said that consumers often end up bearing the burden of tariffs, as companies pass along higher production costs to consumers.
We set all of our clocks forward by and hour, and now we’re on Daylight Saving Time again here in the United States.
I have to say: the older I get, the more annoyed I get at these ruptures in time, twice a year.
Also: I should really stop clambering up my kitchen counter top to mess with the battery-operated wall clock that is mounted way up there, almost by the ceiling. That is not worth it.
Permanent Standard Time (NOT Daylight Time) is what scientists and sleep experts recommend. I asked ChatGPT why we are still changing the time twice a year here in the US.
Sunday’s election, which came months ahead of schedule after the country’s governing coalition crumbled late last year, produced a few surprises and a lot of suspense. Late in the evening in Berlin, it was unclear if the next government would be another wobbly three-party affair, like the one that fell apart last fall, or a return to the more durable two-party governments that had led Germany for most of this century. … Among German voters, 65 percent are worried that Germany is helpless against President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, according to a poll released on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday night in a post-election debate between leaders, Friedrich Merz (the likely new chancellor), quickly brought up the threat that Germany and Europe face because of the new U.S. administration.
“It has become clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this government, is largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said. “I am very curious to see how we approach the NATO summit at the end of June — whether we are still talking about NATO in its current state or whether we need to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
-Christopher F. Schuetze and Jim Tankersley reporting from Berlin for the New York Times
Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union at party headquarters in Berlin on Sunday. [Picture by Angelika Warmuth/ Reuters]
Here is a cartoon for Presidents’ Day*, from the Tuesday issue of South African newspaper Die Burger (“The Citizen”).
*Officially Washington’s Birthday at the federal governmental level, celebrated on the third Monday of February in the United States.
Peace negotiations are at an advanced stage .. and we are almost ready for Ukraine’s participation. Side comment from the hippo: ‘The situation is on a needlepoint!’.
Without question, the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election brought a devastating sense of loss to all of us who had hoped reason would prevail.
I cannot fathom how anyone could believe that this vile, repugnant man— the sore loser of the 2020 election— is fit to once again serve as President of the United States.
I’ve also promised myself that this will be the last post I make about politics for a very long time.
Headlines from the online New York Times. Will a woman ever be United States president?
Happy Monday. So here we are, with Election Day tomorrow.
About 50% of likely American voters have already cast their ballots. The rest will all vote tomorrow.
(New Hampshire, Alabama and Mississippi do not allow general early voting—an eligible reason is required to vote early, by mail).
Only about 2/3 of eligible American voters vote in presidential election years, and only about 1/2 in mid-term elections.
The turnout percentages have gotten bigger in recent cycles, though.
From pewresearch.org under a page heading ‘1. Voter turnout, 2018-2022’: The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades. About two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900. The 2018 election (49% turnout) had the highest rate for a midterm since 1914. Even the 2022 election’s turnout, with a slightly lower rate of 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.
While sizable shares of the public vote either consistently or not at all, many people vote intermittently. Given how closely divided the U.S. is politically, these intermittent voters often determine the outcome of elections and how the balance of support for the two major political parties swings between elections.
Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.
Public Service Announcement Make sure you drop your ballot in an official ballot box. 😆 (Garbage can on Capitol Hill’s 15th Avenue East relabeled by graffiti sticker prankster).
Kamala Harris Rips Trump As ‘Unstable, Obsessed With Revenge’ At Ellipse
By Kaitlin Lewis for Newsweek.com
More than 75,000 spectators gathered in Washington, D.C., to hear Vice President Kamala Harris’ closing argument speech at the same site of former President Donald Trump’s infamous “Save America” rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Harris’ event at the Ellipse arrived one week before Election Day and followed Trump’s closing arguments at Madison Square Garden on Sunday that received backlash for its inflammatory and racist rhetoric.
Vice President Kamala Harris addressing a large crowd at The Ellipse* tonight. *The Ellipse, sometimes referred to as President’s Park South, is a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. [Posted by Matt Corridoni on X.]
From the New York Times Editorial Board: It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.
Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.
This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election.
For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.
Only two weeks remain until Election Day.
I was reminded today by someone on the radio that the 2020 election was only called on Saturday Nov. 5— four days after Election Day (Tuesday Nov. 1).
Written for deadline.com by Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten on Nov 7, 2020: After days of wait over a seemingly glacial pace of ballot counting, CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer called the presidential race for Joe Biden at 11:24:20 AM ET, the first of the networks to declare the winner.
“After four long tense days, we have reached a historic moment in this election,” Blitzer said. “We can now project the winner of the presidential race.”
What triggered it? The latest report of votes coming in from Pennsylvania, which put Biden’s margin over Trump at more than 30,000. Although the trendlines have been in Biden’s direction, network decision desks had been reluctant to make the call until they could better discern the remaining vote.
Analyst Van Jones broke down in tears. “It’s easier to be a parent this morning. It’s easier to be a dad. It’s easier to tell your kids, character matters. It matters. Telling the truth matters.”
Screenshot from CNN, from their announcement on Sat. Nov. 5, 2020.
My ballot landed in the mailbox today. I walk down to the drop box here on Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill tomorrow, and drop it in tomorrow.
Here’s Ezra Klein writing in an opinion piece for the New York Times called ‘Ignore The Polls’, Oct. 13, 2024:
There are voters who are still undecided, but they are, almost by definition, voters who pay less attention to political news and are either so uninterested in politics or so cynical about both candidates that nothing has yet caused them to make up their minds. There are many more voters whose minds are made up but may or may not actually fill out ballots by Election Day. These are the voters who will decide the election, and they’re not tipping their hands yet.
I suspect, if you’re reading this column, you’re not one of those voters. So give yourself a break. Step off the emotional roller coaster. If you want to do something to affect the election, donate money or time in a swing state — ideally to a state party or down-ballot race, where your efforts will go further — or volunteer in a local race. Call anyone in your life who might actually be undecided or might not be registered to vote or might not make it to the polls. And then let go. There’s nothing more you can do, and nothing more the polls can do for you.
Happy Friday.
Early voting has started across the country.
In Georgia, former president Jimmy Carter (100 years old) has voted for Harris-Walz.
My ballot has not arrived yet, but it should land in my mailbox any day now.
Great advice from Jon Cryer (actor in Pretty in Pink, Two and a Half Men): Ignore the polls. And don’t let anything stop you from voting for Harris & Walz. [Posted by Jon Cryer on X @MrJonCryer]
The fiftieth season of the American sketch comedy late night television program Saturday Night Live premiered tonight.
‘Vice President’ Kamala Harris (portrayed by Maya Rudolph) and ‘Second Gentleman’ Doug Emhoff (portrayed by Andy Samberg) doing a skit during the cold open* tonight. Nothing about the future is certain, but let me be optimistic. The American people will confirm in 38 days that the real VP Harris will become President Harris, and that her husband Doug Emhoff will become the first First Gentleman on Jan 20, 2025. *Cold open: jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. [Screen shot from Saturday Night Live on NBC broadcast television].
