4.3 The Economist: “If you failed to spot America being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” or it being cruelly denied a “turn to prosper”, then congratulations: you have a firmer grip on reality than the president of the United States. It’s hard to know which is more unsettling: that the leader of the free world could spout complete drivel about its most successful and admired economy. Or the fact that on April 2nd, spurred on by his delusions, Donald Trump announced the biggest break in America’s trade policy in over a century—and committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.”
4.3 Markets reel; confidence in dollar at risk; nations plan retaliatory tariffs; danger of recession increases.
4.2 Hockey trip to Chicago cancelled due to bad weather. Boo!
4.2 Trump imposes a 10% tariff on goods from most countries being imported into the US, with even higher rates for what he calls the “worst offenders”.
4.2 As electric vehicle sales around the world rise, Tesla announces that its global sales in the first quarter fall 13 percent from a year earlier.
4.2 Washington Post: “Musk spent lots of political capital at a time when that’s a dwindling resource for him. Many more-studied politicos would have seen the atmospherics and not tied themselves so tightly to what was about to happen. Maybe they would have spent the money but not made so many appearances. And perhaps the civic-minded people of the Midwest weren’t all that happy about a guy so transparently trying to buy their votes. In the end, it was a clear setback — even an unforced error — for a man whose brand is on the decline. And that should lead to some reflection in a GOP that has bear-hugged Musk.”
4.1 Susan Crawford wins a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court, after Elon Musk spends $25 million to oppose her. Jess Bidgood in the Times on March 31: “About nine minutes into his time onstage in Green Bay last night, Elon Musk neatly explained why he — a billionaire technologist who is already distracted by a little project in Washington — had poured $20 million and hours of his time into a Wisconsin Supreme Court election. “What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives,” he said. The party that controls the chamber, he added, “controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization.”. . .He has a point. Democrats. . . are widely expected to challenge the narrowly divided state’s congressional maps, which currently favor Republicans, if voters maintain a liberal majority on the Supreme Court.”
4.1 Sen. Cory Booker speaks for a record-setting 25 hours and four minutes on the floor of the Senate. Booker revealed that he didn’t have to go to the restroom over 25 hours because he hadn’t eaten since Friday and stopped drinking water Sunday—intentionally dehydrating himself.
4.1 Val Kilmer dies at 65.