OpEd: Trump's Tariffs Have Done What No US Adversary Could
jacobin.com

... Great powers often decline through self-inflicted blows. By starting a trade war he was unable to follow through on, Donald Trump may have just dealt a severe one to the United States.

ften in history, there's no blow struck by the enemies of a great power more fatal than the one it inflicts on itself. The British invasion of Egypt in 1956, for example, and the ensuing pushback, walkback, humiliation, and loss of prestige for the country, came to be viewed as the own goal that firmly ended the United Kingdom's claim to being a global empire.

Donald Trump's sudden declaration of, and subsequent quick retreat from, trade war on China may end up being remembered the same way: an unforced error cementing the decline of a unipolar world order dominated by one single power and signaling the transition to something new.

The Trump administration's stated goals of reshoring the jobs that years of pro-corporate free trade deals had sent out of the country and reconstituting the US manufacturing base are good and arguably necessary. After all, it was only a few years ago that the United States had to rely on airlifts of vital medical supplies from its leading rival to grapple with a pandemic.

But the specific way Trump has rolled out the tariffs, and the decision to turn that project into one big pissing contest for global supremacy, has potentially done the exact kind of damage to global perceptions of US power that the president was trying to avoid.

To the extent that the Trump administration had a coherent set of goals in its ever-shifting public justifications for its tariffs, they were meant to not just kick-start the process of bringing manufacturing back to the United States but to force countries into renegotiating their terms of trade in a way that was more favorable to the United States and, more broadly, to isolate and put pressure on a rising China vying for global leadership. That last one was reportedly what Trump officials had been discussing two weeks into the tariff announcement, reasoning that most of the world's countries, China included, would face such an economic shock from losing the ability to sell their exports to the United States' sizable population of big-spending consumers, they would simply fold and agree to whatever Trump wanted.

So far, none of that has worked out.

The blanket, erratic, and often nonsensical nature of the tariffs has, far from showing signs of jump-starting the long process of reshoring manufacturing jobs, actually proven a major obstacle to that project, while also leading manufacturers to shed jobs or scale back their plans and plunging the entire US economy into uncertainty more broadly.

This reached a crescendo with the mass sell-off of US Treasury bonds earlier this month that briefly threatened to send the entire US financial system buckling. ...

Trump: I run the country and the world'
thehill.com

... "The first time, I had two things to do " run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys," Trump said in the interview published Monday. "And the second time, I run the country and the world."

Trump has taken broad executive action on a range of issues since returning to office in January, with his moves on immigration and trade drawing the most attention and producing intense pushback in courts and among global leaders, respectively.

On trade, Trump sparked backlash globally by announcing tariffs on most countries, including top U.S. trading partners, though he has paused some of the country-specific levies until July. The rollercoaster action on trade has rattled global markets and raised economic anxiety.

Relationships with longtime American allies have also seen strain with rhetoric around acquiring Greenland and of Canada becoming part of the U.S. Meanwhile, Trump has focused much of his first few months in office on trying to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

While speaking with The Atlantic, the president also commented on the possibility of a third bid for the White House, something he has previously flirted with but which GOP lawmakers have largely dismissed as joking. ...

United States Job Openings
tradingeconomics.com

... Job openings in the United States fell by 288,000 to 7.192 million in March 2025, the lowest in six months and well below market expectations of 7.48 million. The drop was broad-based, with the largest decreases reported for transportation, warehousing, and utilities (-59K), accommodation and food services (-42K), construction (-38K), federal governemnt (-36K), real estate and rental and leasing (-39K), and health care and social assistance (-37K).

On the other-------- openings increased in finance and insurance (25K), other services (20K), state and local education (17K), wholesale trade (10K) and manufacturing (4K). Regarding regional distribution, job openings fell in the Northeast (-180K), the South (-69K), and in the West (-76K), but increased in the Midwest (36K).

Meanwhile, hires held at 5.4 million, and total separations changed little at 5.1 million. Within separations, quits were unchanged (3.3 million) and layoffs and discharges edged down (1.6 million).

source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ...

How much has Elon Musk's Doge cut from US government spending?
www.bbc.com

... Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - set up to cut US government spending - claims to have saved, on average, more than $10bn a week since President Trump entered office.

"We're talking about almost $200bn and rising fast," Trump told the BBC when talking about Mr Musk's cost-cutting drive on 23 April.

Doge's website says it is focusing on cancelling contracts, grants and leases put in place by previous administrations, as well as tackling fraud and reducing the government workforce.

BBC Verify has looked at the agency's biggest claimed savings, examining the figures and speaking to experts.

Our analysis found that behind some of the large numbers, there is a lack of evidence to back them up. ...

There's a chart in the article that shows $160 billion estimated savings, $61.5 billion itemized savings, and only $32.5 billion savings with a receipt attached.

Pre-tariffs stockpiling boosts US goods trade deficit to record high
www.reuters.com

... Summary

Goods trade deficit widens to record $162.0 billion

Imports soar to all-time high of $342.746 billion

Consumer goods account for big chunk of surge in imports

Wholesale inventories increase 0.5%; retail stocks fall...

Nails - 88 Lines about 44 Women (1984)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
[Verse 1]
Deborah was a Catholic girl, she held out 'til the bitter end
Carla was a different type, she's the one who put it in
Mary was a black girl and I was afraid of a girl like that
Suzen painted pictures sitting down like a Buddha sat

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 2]
Reno was a nameless girl, a geographic memory
Cathy was a Jesus freak, she liked that kind of misery
Vicki had this special way of turning sex into a song
Kamala, who couldn't sing, kept the beat and kept it strong

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 3]
Zilla was an archetype, the voodoo queen, the queen of wrath
Joan thought men were second best to ------------ in the bath
Sherry was a feminist, she really had that gift of gab
Kathleen's point of view was this, take whatever you can grab
See upcoming pop shows
Get tickets for your favorite artists
You might also like
Family Matters
Drake
yes, and?
Ariana Grande
FIELD TRIP
$, Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign
[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 4]
Seattle was another girl who left her mark upon the map
Karen liked to tie me up and left me hanging by a strap
Jeannie had this nightclub walk that made grown men feel underage
Mariella, who had a son, said "I must go", but finally stayed

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 5]
Gloria, the last taboo, was shattered by her tongue one night
Mimi brought the taboo back and held it up before the light
Marilyn, who knew no shame, was never ever satisfied
Julie came and went so fast, she didn't even say goodbye

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 6]
Well, Rhonda had a house in Venice, lived on brown rice and cocaine
Patty had a house in Houston, shot cough syrup in her veins
Linda thought her life was empty, filled it up with alcohol
Katherine was much too pretty, she didn't do that ---- at all
[Chorus]
Mmm (Uh-uh, not Katherine), mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 7]
Pauline thought that love was simple, turn it on and turn it off
Jean-Marie was complicated like some French filmmaker's plot
Gina was the perfect lady, always kept her stockings straight
Jackie was a rich punk rocker, silver spoon and a paper plate

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 8]
Sarah was a modern dancer, lean pristine transparency
Janet wrote bad poetry in a crazy kind of urgency
Tanya Turkish liked to ---- while wearing leather biker boots
Brenda's strange obsession was for certain vegetables and fruit

[Chorus]
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm
Mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm

[Verse 9]
Rowena was an artist's daughter, the deeper image shook her up
...

I chose you to end this list

[Outro]
Eighty-eight lines about forty-four women
...

I did say there were 88 lines ... :)

Too Much Joy - That's A Lie (1990)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
I'm tired of the stories that you always tell
Shakespeare couldn't tell a story that well
You're the largest liar that was ever created
You and Pinocchio are probably related
...

Camper Van Beethoven - Good Guys and Bad Guys (1986)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
Well there are good guys and there are bad guys
And there are crooks and criminals
There are doctors and there are lawyers
And there are folks like you and me
...

Trump chief of staff said the president thought Pence deserves' chants of hang Mike Pence' on Jan. 6, ex-aide testifies
www.cnbc.com

Texas man who stormed Capitol with gun gets 87 months in prison (2022)
www.koat.com

... A Texas man convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, helmet and body armor was sentenced on Monday to 87 months " more than seven years " in prison, the longest sentence imposed so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

Prosecutors said Guy Reffitt told fellow members of the Texas Three Percenters militia group that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, "with her head hitting every step on the way down," according to a court filing. ...

www.npr.org (2021)

... In a statement, the U.S. Capitol Police said it accepts the medical examiner's finding.

"This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol," the statement said. ...

Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland - The Dream
www.youtube.com

:)

Here's How Millennials and Gen Z Afford Housing in 2025
finance.yahoo.com

... According to a recent study from Realtor.com, millennials and Gen Z are "pent up" when it comes to housing -- there were 1.6 million fewer households for those between 18 and 44 than expected. This means that around 1.6 million expected Gen Z and millennial households didn't come together last year, mainly due to a lack of affordable housing.

The total housing gap was 3.8 million in 2024, and many younger people are sharing households rather than living alone. ...