Existential 'Dred

100 Days, Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday

Since each day feels like a month and each month feels like a decade, there's no compelling reason to wait until we officially reach day one hundred of the new administration to assess their first 100 days in office. As Dana Milbank explains in WaPo (Gift Article): Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure. He hasn't gotten many bills signed. He hasn't ended the wars he promised to end. He plunged the markets and created instability in the global economy. He's offended our closest allies and dramatically decreased international tourism to the US. He's been great for China and provided solace to Russia. He's been losing court cases. His approval rating is dropping. But, in fairness, this is a presidency that seems determined to be judged not only by traditional measures of political success, but also by the amount of damage it can do. So it's worth noting that, as Milbank points out, "Trump, whose 100th day in office is April 30, has achieved one thing that is truly remarkable: He has introduced a level of chaos and destruction so high that historians are hard-pressed to find its equal in our history. He has upended global structures that kept the peace for generations. He has aligned America with the world’s despots. He has slashed the federal workforce and impaired the government’s ability to collect taxes, administer Social Security and fund medical research, among many other things. He has abused his power in startling ways, using the government for personal vengeance and retribution against perceived opponents, harassing law firms, universities and the free press with an authoritarian flourish. He has shattered the guardrails that limit executive power, ignoring laws, eliminating inspectors general and other mechanisms for accountability and oversight. He has displayed gratuitous cruelty in the treatment of migrants and government workers alike. He has used the government to undertake breathtaking schemes of self-enrichment. And he has left a large number of his countrymen angry and frightened."

+ The anger and fear, as it turns out, is somewhat bipartisan. Earlier this week, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski answered a question from a constituent in way that makes it clear just how much has changed in the not yet one hundred days. "We are all afraid…I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real." And here's the famously reserved, conservative commentator David Brooks in the NYT(Gift Article) calling for an uprising. What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal. "It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power."

2

Preempt Exempt Attempt

In it's latest salvo against Harvard, the Trump administration has demanded its records related to foreign donations. Earlier, "federal officials punished the university by freezing $2.2 billion in federal grants and are threatening to revoke the institution’s tax-exempt status." Why are the tactics that the administration is deploying against Harvard so important? Because they offer a blueprint (accusations of a foreign interference, cutting off funds, removing tax exempt statuses) of a strategy that many educational institutions, non-profits, and NGOs wil be facing in the near future. Politico: "President Donald Trump on Thursday ramped up his threats to scrutinize the tax-exempt status of groups and colleges he disagrees with, calling out a prominent organization that’s fighting some of his actions in court." These can all be viewed as preemptive strikes against the groups fighting back in courts, defending the constitution, and leading the resistance.

3

Parental Leave

"High-school seniors may be leaving home for college in a few months, but some parents aren’t ready to let them party on their own in countries where the drinking age is 18. They also don’t want to be a buzzkill by saying no to senior spring break. The compromise: Mom and dad are packing their sunblock and bathing suits and coming along." WSJ (Gift Article): Have Fun on Spring Break, Kids. I’ll Be Right Next Door. (My kids are embarrassed when I come along on family trips...)

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: When a financial titan (Jon Hamm) suddenly finds himself divorced and jobless, he starts robbing his wealthy neighbors to stay afloat. Check out Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple TV.

+ What to Binge: I've been working my way through the six seasons of Line of Duty, the British police drama focused on an anti-corruption unit. (For some reason, I find myself interested in anticorruption fights these days.) I'm watching on Prime, but it's available a lot of places.

+ What to Read: "The funny thing was that this is what he got grief for — trying to avoid wafting carcinogens. Of all his idiosyncrasies, and there were lots, this was among the most rational. A small sampling of the others: He brought his own sheets and pillowcase for overnights at the firehouse. He wiped down everything with his own stash of bleach wipes — including the inside of the fire engine. In his back pocket, he had a second remote control for the fire station’s TV, so he wouldn’t need to touch the shared one." NYT (Gift Article): The Firefighter With O.C.D. and the Vaccine He Believed Would Kill Him.

5

Extra, Extra

Courts and Last Resorts: "It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time." Read Conservative Judge’s Full Opinion Rebuking Trump Administration Over Abrego Garcia Case. And another judge blocks administration from deporting noncitizens to 3rd countries without due process. Meanwhile, a US citizen was held for pickup by ICE even after proving he was born in the country. And, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador.

+ Shart of the Deal: Rubio and Trump give slightly different updates on the peace deal they're supposedly brokering between Russia in Ukraine. Neither update suggested much progress.

+ Dollar Signs: "Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as President Donald Trump tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the US." (There is some good economic news to report. Since it's Good Friday, the markets are closed.) Meanwhile, Trump is replacing the acting IRS commissioner, part of a dispute between Treasury and Elon Musk.

+ More Strikes on Yemen: "US air strikes on a key oil terminal on Yemen's Red Sea coast controlled by the Houthi movement have killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, the Houthi-run health ministry says."

+ A Night Unlike Other Nights: "Early Sunday morning, a man named Cody Balmer allegedly attempted to burn down the official residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, just hours after Shapiro and his family had finished their Passover seder." Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Lies About Josh Shapiro Have Consequences. "The Genocide Josh movement singled out a Jewish candidate for censure over Israel while tendentiously misrepresenting his stance on the issues in order to discredit him. This was not an expression of traditional sharp-elbowed American political discourse, but rather an echo of ancient antipathies."

+ You're On: "The company plans to incorporate a partner company’s AI tech into its TV software in order to interpret psychological factors impacting a viewer, such as personal interests, personality traits, and lifestyle choices." LG TVs’ integrated ads get more personal with tech that analyzes viewer emotions. (So now we'll just see ads customized for people who are furious at their TV company...)

+ Burning Associated with Sex: "It was not immediately clear how or why Torres set fire to the sex toys, which included a 'rubber vagina,' according to a police source." Flaming sex toys sparked blaze damaging three Staten Island homes.

6

Feel Good Friday

Back in the day, I partipated in the annual parent sack race at my kids' elementary school -- until Jonny Moseley became a parent at the school and decided to join in. I'm used to coming in at the back of the pack in races, but there was no way I was gonna sack up against the world's greatest mogul skier. I was reminded of this experience when I saw this headline: Olympic legend leaves parents in her dust at school sports day.

+ Stem cells to treat Parkinson's? 2 small studies hint at success.

+ New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line.

+ Missing toddler who walked 7 miles alone through Arizona wilderness led to safety by rancher's dog.

+ ‘Book brigade’: US town forms human chain to move 9,100 books one-by-one. (I once did something similar, but I used my Kindle.)

+ WaPo: Huge rabbit rescued from kill farm is now therapy bunny, drives mini truck. (He also regularly attends SF Giants games which—at least so far this season—have also been feel good stories.)

+ In preparation for 4-20 (which originated at my high high school), here's a look at how the number and the event went global. ‘This is freaking crazy!': The rise and fall of a San Francisco party that changed the world.

+ ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you.' If only we were as loving to each other as we are to machines. (Says the guy who once wrote an article titled: I Kissed an iPad and I Liked It...)