Trump tariffed the world—but not Russia

Face masks depicting then-incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin hang for sale at a shop in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Jan. 20, 2025.  If only these two tyrants were as dead as their masks.

By kos 

Daily Kos Staff

Friday, April 04, 2025 at 8:00:23a MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY: 

Blue Country Gazette Blog 

Rim Country Gazette Blog

Penguins slapped with tariffs, but not his bosom bro Putin

As President Donald Trump bragged about slapping tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories, there was one conspicuous omission: Russia. 

It was yet another example of Trump’s bizarre obsession with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin as well as his disdain for Ukraine, which got slapped with a 10% tariff. News outlet NOTUS reported that a White House official said that “Russia is not on this list because sanctions from the Ukraine war have already rendered trade between the two countries as zero.”

That was a weird explanation, given that Trump’s list included the “countries” of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which are uninhabited by humans, though lots of penguins live there. Not that anyone is fooled by the penguin effort to undermine America …

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In addition, that White House official flat-out lied to NOTUS. The U.S. does conduct some trade with Russia—and far more than some of the countries on its tariff list, like Norfolk Island, which had $655,000 in exports to the U.S. in 2023.

Last year, the U.S. traded an estimated $3.5 billion of goods with Russia, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “U.S. goods exports to Russia in 2024 were $526.1 million,” the office says on its website. “The U.S. goods trade deficit with Russia was $2.5 billion in 2024.” 

Remember, Trump stupidly sees any trade deficit as a country screwing the U.S. And yet, while Russia has a fairly significant one, Trump has remained mum. 

So what is Russia sending to the U.S.? No. 1 on the list: fertilizer. 

And therein lies the likely reason Trump exempted Russia. 

American farmers get the vast majority of their potash fertilizer from Canada, which the U.S. has now heavily tariffed. Watch him try to replace Canadian potash with Russian fertilizer to both mollify furious farmers and their Republican legislators, and do a solid for his pal Putin.

There's gotta be a reason: Sometimes gays pretend to be anti-gay to cover up their gayness.

Trump voters got exactly what they wanted — so why are people complaining? | Opinion

He's so cute when he hugs the flag and blows kisses.

 

"The dumber and more incoherent, the more his bigoted supporters trust him."

Opinion by John Stoehr

Alternet 

April 4, 2025

This week, Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs that the Associated Press called “a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point,” and what I want to know is this:

Why are we still wondering what Trump voters want?

He promised. He delivered. What’s the mystery?

I ask, because our discourse seems to be invested in the idea that his supporters don’t really want this, and I don’t just mean his hardcore supporters. We tell ourselves that the last election was about inflation and the high cost of living, like the price of eggs, and that it doesn’t make sense for people who voted against that to welcome it now.

Resolving this tension is important. The Democrats believe that if they can show Trump voters what he’s going to do – how he’s going to make everything more expensive – then they can get some of them to see why supporting a Democrat in the midterms is good for them.

In doing this, the Democrats assume that Trump voters are motivated by their wallets. That’s understandable. The conventional wisdom is that inflation caused the electorate to burn up the incumbent party.

But the conventional wisdom also asks us to do something that we should not do and it prevents us from asking the hard questions. In effect, it treats Trump supporters as if they didn’t really understand what they were getting into, and as a consequence of not truly understanding, they can’t be held responsible for what they did.

It treats them like children.

We shouldn’t do that.

If we treat them as adults who have their way of understanding tariffs, we might ask ourselves what’s really going on, because what’s really going on isn’t about money, and because of that, it’s harder to beat.

Look at it this way.

Trump supporters are going to trust him no matter how incoherent, no matter how dumb. Indeed, the dumber and more incoherent, the more they trust. His choices trigger reactions, which in turn force his people to choose between trusting everyone who says tariffs are a tax, which they are in fact or trusting Trump, who says they’re a tax cut. (Evidently, the idea is that tariffs will bring such prosperity to America that the government will no longer have need for an income tax.)

Over the last 10 years, Trump has swept them up in a story about the cosmic battle between good and evil, in which the chosen people, free and innocent and pure, have been taken advantage of by “globalists” who are trying to replace them with foreigners with the intention of “poisoning the blood” of the country, leading to America’s destruction.

Of course, this story is about a white man’s country fighting to reclaim its birthright against multiracial democratic politics, which seeks to flatten the hierarchies of power. But it can be told in a way that appeals to anyone, even nonwhite people, and that’s why I keep saying the challenge isn’t just hardcore supporters. It’s swing voters, too.

Liberation requires personal sacrifice and “short-term pain.” So if supporters do end up recognizing that his policies are impoverishing them, they almost certainly will not attribute their suffering to him.

They will blame whomever he tells them to, including nations, as he said yesterday, that have “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” the country. These foreigners are the reason he implemented tariffs in the first place, using emergency powers usually reserved for wartime.

Indeed, the more Trump supporters suffer, the closer they are likely going to bind themselves to the president. Their suffering will be taken as proof of their patriotism and devotion to the cause of justice, and because their savior will be the only one who can relieve them of it.

This cosmic story about a white man’s country fighting to reclaim its birthright does not make sense to those who can’t or won’t see the role of racism in politics. So they chock it up to just another conspiracy theory before looking for “the real reasons” why voters chose

Trump. The Democrats, meanwhile, tend to accept this, which means their solutions to the problem are as phony as the problem itself.

I’ll conclude with this observation.

It could be that the last election was about money, but not in the way most people think. Fact is, the economy was booming. Inflation was down. Wages were up. Unemployment had rarely been lower. Joe Biden really did grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. And in spite of stubbornly high costs, most everyone prospered.

But that may have been the problem.

It’s not that Trump voters were mad at Biden, because he didn’t do enough about inflation. I think they were mad at him, because he did more than any president to expand the economic pie to include all those who are usually left behind, especially Black people.

Sad as it is, the fact remains that when Black Americans are doing well for themselves, too many white people in this country start feeling like something is wrong, something is being taken from them, someone somewhere is cheating them, even when they are in fact thriving. It’s white-power’s zero-sum. If America includes “them,” it excludes “us.”

The mainstream view used to be that the party that presided over boomtimes was the party that could expect to be rewarded. But for Trump voters who believe they are the real America, and that the real America has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered,” it’s likely that boomtimes meant something else – evidence they were right.

The Democrats tend to believe they can win over some Trump voters with economic politics that are designed to be in everyone’s interest. But it’s because they are designed in everyone’s interest that most Trump voters are unlikely to be won over. They want economic policies for them, not everyone. And if tariffs end up hurting them, they can take comfort in knowing Black people are hurting more.

Yes, these tariffs are the biggest tax increase of our lifetimes.

But that’s what they wanted.

He promised. He delivered. No mystery

Going, going, GONE!  France can't have it back because somebody else is willing to pay for it.  Sold to Vladimir Putin for the price of endless flattery.

Trump marks ‘Liberation Day’ with bizarre rant, conspiracies—and lame props

President Donald Trump displays a chart listing every country with increased tariffs, during what he called "Liberation Day."

Evil, corrupt and stupid: Thanks, MAGA.  Enjoy the higher prices for a grocery "bag of different things."

 

By Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday, April 02, 2025 at 5:30:03p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

President Donald Trump wanted the entire world to know about his self-branded “Liberation Day” on Wednesday, during which he announced—in a 48-minute rambling speech, no less—a slew of new tariffs on imported goods.

During his rant, Trump used props, pushed debunked conspiracy theories, and even engaged in a bit of antisemitic dog whistling.

Perhaps most notably, Trump chose to ignore a reporter’s question about families worried about the impact his tariffs will have on their lives. Trump has previously falsely claimed that tariffs are paid by foreign nations, but historically they’ve been passed on as additional costs to U.S. consumers.

Consumer sentiment dramatically fell 12% in March as Americans have growing concerns that the economy will worsen thanks to Trump’s policies like these new tariffs.

Touting his tariff decision, which will purportedly impose reciprocal tariffs on several nations (Trump endlessly repeated the term “reciprocal”), Trump then turned to props to sell his message.

President Donald Trump is seen holding a giant chart listing every country on which he has placed a tariff (regardless of whether it's inhabited).

Holding a printed-out report showing the alleged necessity of increased tariffs, Trump was handed a large chart, which listed many countries—but not Russia—and the reciprocal tariffs they will be charged. The full list included several odd choices like the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, located in the southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

To almost complete silence from the audience, Trump then read most of the chart, offering up commentary on each country (including complaining about the South African government, which has tried to address the effects of racist apartheid policies, and the consternation of Elon Musk).

And in true salesman fashion, Trump paused the proceeding to throw a red MAGA hat into the audience.

Trump stressed the purported necessity of tariffs against Canada, citing Canadian tariffs on milk imports. But those tariffs are mostly a figment of Trump’s imagination, since the transportation of milk does not meet the threshold, which was imposed during Trump’s first term.

“In practice, these tariffs are not actually paid by anyone,” Al Mussell, an expert on Canadian trade issues, explained to CNN in March.

Trying to preempt criticism of his tariff plan, Trump said that “globalists” would be among the many groups objecting to his actions. This term has long been used by the right, including Trump, as an antisemitic dog whistle to imply conspiracies led by Jewish people.

Then, deviating from his tariff messaging, Trump rehashed long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen by President Joe Biden. He also bizarrely took credit for supposedly re-popularizing the term “groceries.”

“Groceries, I used it on the campaign. It’s such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It’s a bag with different things in it,” he said.

Trump pushed a trade war against China during his first term, and it was a massive failure that led to billions spent to bail out farmers. Now with his new tariffs, Trump is set to increase costs for millions of Americans.

So, “Liberation Day” for who exactly?

HANDS OFF! RALLY: Saturday, April 5 is destined to be the largest day of protest in many years with massive peaceful marches in Washington DC and big cities around our nation and throughout the world.  Find one and join in the festivities.  You have nothing to lose but your freedom.

Sen. Cory Booker Makes a Stand Against Trump – and Doesn’t Stop for 25 Hours

  Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaks to reporters in the Senate Reception room after holding the floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes for a filibuster on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (photo: Greg Nash/The Hill)  

 

David Smith / Guardian UK 02 April 25

 

His was a primal scream of resistance: "We all must do more to stand against them."

“Would the senator yield for a question?” asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day’s journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: “Chuck Schumer, it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no.”

But Schumer wasn’t taking no for an answer. “I just wanted to tell you, a question, do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?”

New Jersey’s first Black senator had just shattered the record for the longest speech in Senate history, delivered by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, an arch segregationist who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In the normally sombre Senate chamber, around 40 Democrats rose to their feet in effusive applause. A few hundred people in the public gallery, where the busts of 20 former vice-presidents gazed down from marble plinths, erupted in clapping and cheering and whooping. The senator took a tissue and mopped perspiration from his forehead.

Since Booker’s obstruction did not occur during voting on any bill it was not technically a filibuster. But it marked the first time during Donald Trump’s second term that Democrats have deliberately clogged up Senate business.

Indeed, after 72 days in which Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless, Booker stood up and did something. He said his constituents had challenged him to think differently and take risks and so he did. In an attention economy so often dominated by the forces of Maga, his all-nighter offered a ray of hope in the darkness.

Some Democrats have desperately tried to be authentic with cringeworthy TikTok videos such as a “Choose Your Fighter” parody. Booker, by contrast, went old school: one man standing and talking for hour after hour on the Senate floor in a display of endurance reminiscent of a famous scene in the 1939 film Mr Smith Goes to Washington starring Jimmy Stewart.

It had all begun at 7pm on Monday when, wearing a US flag pin on a dark suit, white shirt and black tie as if dressed for the funeral of the republic, Booker vowed: “I rise tonight with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.

“I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis … These are not normal times in America and they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”

What followed was a tour de force of physical stamina. The 55-year-old, who played tight end for Stanford University’s American football team, asked a Senate page to take away his chair so he was not tempted to sit down, which is barred by the Senate rules. The chair could be seen pushed back against a wall.

Above Booker the words “Novus Ordo Seclorum” – a Latin phrase meaning “a new order of the ages” or “a new order of the centuries” – were inscribed in the Senate chamber above a relief depicting a bare chested hero wrestling a snake.

Booker leaned on his desk and sipped from a glass of water. He shifted from foot to foot or paced to keep the blood circulating in his legs. He wiped away sweat with a white handkerchief. He plucked a tissue from a blue-grey tissue box, blew his nose and dropped it into a bin. He persisted.

Alexandra De Luca, vice president of communications at the liberal group American Bridge, tweeted: “I worked for Cory Booker on the campaign trail and (and I say this with love) that man drinks enough caffeine on a normal day to stay up 72 hours. This could go a while.”

Booker may also be a great advert for veganism. He could be jocular, bantering with old friends in the Senate about sport and state rivalries. He could be emotional, his voice cracking and his eyes on the verge of tears, especially when a letter from the family of a person with Parkinson’s disease reminded him of his late father.

He could also be angry, channeling the fury of those who feel their beloved country slipping away. Yet to the end his mind was clear and his voice was strong. This was also a masterclass in political rhetoric, which Schumer rightly praised for its “crystalline brilliance”.

There were recurring themes: Trump’s economic chaos and rising prices; billionaires exerting ever greater influence; Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, slashing entire government programmes without consent from Congress and inflicting pain on children, military veterans and other vulnerable groups.

Booker read dozens and dozens of letters from what he called “terrified people” with “heartbreaking” stories. As the day wore on, he quoted from a fired USAid employee who told a devastating story of broken dreams and warned: “The beacon of our democracy grows dim across the globe.”

The senator also warned of tyranny: Trump disappearing people from the streets without due process; bullying the media and trying to create press corps like Vladimir Putin or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; seizing more executive power and putting democracy itself in grave peril.

A few times he inverted former president John F Kennedy’s famous phrase to warn that today it’s no longer “ask not what your country can do for you. It’s what you can do for Donald Trump.”

He acknowledged that the public want Democrats to do more. But he insisted that can only go so far and, as during the civil rights movement, the American people must rise up. He frequently referred to a “moral moment” and invoked the late congressman John Lewis, famed for causing “good trouble”.

“This is not who we are or how we do things in America,” Booker said. “How much more can we endure before we, as a collective voice, say enough is enough? Enough is enough. You’re not going to get away with this.”

The Senate chamber contains 100 wooden desks and brown leather chairs on a tiered semicircular platform. For most of the marathon nearly all the seats were empty and only a handful of reporters were in the press gallery.

But Democrat Chris Murphy accompanied Booker throughout his speech. “We’ve passed the 15-hour mark,” Booker observed. “I want to thank Senator Murphy because he’s been here at my side the entire time.”

Other Democrats took turns to show up in solidarity, asking if Booker would accept a question. He agreed, reading from a note to ensure he got the wording right: “I yield for a question while retaining the floor.”

Occasionally he would quip: “I have the floor. So much power, it’s going to my head!”

Just after 10.30am Schumer, the minority leader, told Booker: “Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity has just been nothing short of amazing and all of America is paying attention to what you’re saying. All of America needs to know there’s so many problems, the disastrous actions of this administration.”

They discussed Medicaid cuts before Booker responded: “You heaped so many kind things on me. But never before in the history of America has a man from Brooklyn said so many complimentary things about a man in Newark.”

Angela Alsobrooks, the first Black senator from Maryland, entered the chamber, caught Booker’s eye and raised a clenched fist in a shared act of resistance.

As Booker approached the 24-hour mark, most Senate Democrats took their seats and Democrats from the House of Representatives, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, sat or stood in the chamber. The public and press galleries swelled.

Booker once again channelled Lewis, the civil rights hero. “I don’t know what John Lewis would say, but John Lewis would do something. He would say something. What we will have to repent for is not the words and violent actions for bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of good people. This is our moral moment.”

As Booker closed in on Thurmond’s record, Murphy noted that this speech was very different. “Today you are standing not in the way of progress but of retreat,” he told his friend.

Booker commented: “I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand. I’m not here, though, because of his speech; I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.”

Even when the record was beaten he carried on. “I want to go a little bit past this and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling,” he said.

Finally, after 25 hours and four minutes, Booker declared: “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong. Madam President, I yield the floor.”

Again the chamber erupted in cheers and Democrats mobbed their new unofficial leader. No one who was there will ever forget it. Booker had delivered a vivid portrait of a great nation breaking promises to its people, betraying overseas allies and sliding off a cliff towards authoritarianism. He had also made a persuasive case that an inability to do everything should not undermine an attempt to do something.

His was a primal scream of resistance.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer Goes Nuclear on Trump Over Stock Market — Hits Him With Worst Insult Possible

"He knocks down the stock market simply by opening his mouth."

 

Story by Tommy Christopher

3 min read

Mediaite

April 1, 2025 

CNBC host Jim Cramer went nuclear on President Donald Trump over the cratering stock market as the commander in chief’s tariff deadline approaches, dishing out one of the worst insults Trump can think of.

The biggest round of Trump tariffs yet is set to hit on April 2 — what Trump calls “Liberation Day,” but the stock market appears to view more as Judgment Day. Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered somewhat on Monday, the index lost nearly 1200 points in March, and futures were headed south again overnight.

On Monday night’s edition of CNBC’s Mad Money, the host delivered a devastating assessment of Trump as the “one man standing in the way of a great economy” and finished with what Trump would surely consider a deeply insulting kill shot — comparing him to the late President Jimmy Carter:

We have declining inflation, except the president’s putting on inflationary tariffs.

We have incredibly low unemployment, except where it’s caused by the Trump administration.

We have a market that was doing extremely well last year, until the Trump Administration sowed the level of uncertainty that I can’t recall any time since — Are you ready, Ski Daddy? — Jimmy Carter.

Which is the last time people were really worried about inflation, about stagflation, okay? Back then, stagflation was real.

Now, Jimmy Carter, curious benchmark, break out the cardigan sweater. I know it’s a brutal comparison. You think I did it idly?

I cannot think of another president in my lifetime who could knock down the stock market simply by opening his mouth than Jimmy Carter. Eureka! I have found him!

So let’s look at it this way: Everything about this economy is good. Everything, everything, except one thing. We have a president who’s very angry at everyone, except Vladimir Putin. Oh, no, maybe even Vladimir Putin.

And his wrath has made investors so downcast and so negative that people have just given up. They want nothing to do with stocks, nothing to with this world, because they’re sure the White House will keep laying on the tariffs that seem to be wiping out your wealth and my wealth.

In this environment, it’s a wonder anyone’s buying anything, unless they think that the one person who’s standing in the way of a great economy, one that could have incredible growth with lowered inflation, lower oil prices, less regulation, more confidence, will finally change the stripes.

If Trump can lose the anger, drop the scowl, stop diminishing our friends and rivals while making common cause with our enemies, and generally start acting like he did in his first term, well, that would be huge for the stock market!

As far as the stock markets are concerned, though, we need less Jimmy Carter, more Ronald Reagan. Bottom line, maybe Wednesday isn’t de-liberation day.

It’s just the day when American investors may be finally liberated from the president’s not-so-pro-business attitude, once he gets the tariffs out of the way.

"The index lost nearly 1200 points in March"

Why Republicans Keep Trying to Murder Big Bird

 The bird, the myth, the legend.

From Nixon to Trump, Warbler of Kindness has been despised by GOP for decades

 

By Oliver Willis 

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 5:00:13p MDT

  

REPUBLISHED BY: 

Blue Country Gazette Blog 

Rim Country Gazette Blog

Congressional Republicans held a hearing on Wednesday to direct their ire at a familiar target: public broadcasting. Led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the Delivering on Government Efficiency Committee questioned the heads of NPR and PBS, lobbing complaints of purported political bias and using “taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions.”

A day later, President Donald Trump chimed in with a post on his Truth Social platform, writing, “NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (Networks!), should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY. Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Attacking NPR and PBS, home to “Sesame Street,” is not new ground for the right. It’s not even MAGA-specific. In fact, the war on public broadcasting goes back decades and has been passed down from Republican to Republican.

The headquarters for NPR in Washington, D.C.

PBS and NPR are funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit funded by taxpayers. Programming on the networks is also funded by underwriters, which are sometimes private corporations but also individuals, other nonprofits, or trusts.

Back in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon opposed funding PBS and even vetoed congressional legislation that included money to keep the network going. Coincidentally, PBS led the way in airing uninterrupted coverage of the Watergate hearings, which would eventually lead to him resigning from the presidency. 

At the time, viewers of the commercial networks complained that hearing coverage interrupted regular programming, while networks like C-SPAN did not yet exist. PBS was a noncommercial venue for educating the public about the most serious issue of the moment.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan tried to cut public broadcasting funding even though the Democratic-led Congress had voted for money to be appropriated for that cause. Both George W. Bush and Trump (in his first term) attempted to defund the broadcasters as well.

During the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney joined the crusade against public media, only to be mocked in an ad from then-President Barack Obama. The ad noted that despite the crimes of Wall Street during the Great Recession, Romney had singled out Big Bird—complaining that taxpayers were funding “Sesame Street.”

Romney lost, and Big Bird remains.

But why are Republicans so focused on attacking PBS and NPR, to the point that the ire transcends the ideological differences within the Republican Party over decades?

A big part of the reason is trust. Public media in the United States has been a resounding success. Both on the radio and on television (and now online), PBS and NPR provide content trusted by a wide swath of Americans, and both services have a very good track record of providing information without corporate or political influence.

For over 22 years of polling, PBS has been ranked as the most trusted institution in the United States. A January poll from YouGov found that PBS was more highly regarded than courts of law, commercial television and print publications, and above even the federal government and Congress. 

Similarly, according to Harris Interactive in late 2024, NPR was ranked as the most trustworthy news media brand in America.

PBS Kids, which is the programming bloc where “Sesame Street” resides, is trusted by the vast majority of parents (88%), according to a YouGov poll. And 90% of parents agreed that PBS Kids helps to prepare children for educational success. Parents also ranked it as far and away the most educational media brand.

“Sesame Street” has long tackled important topics like racism, making it clear to children that this kind of bigotry is “wrong and unfair.”

In short, public broadcasting represents the opposite of many conservative beliefs. The networks support accessible information, prioritize education, and strive to produce content opposing bigotry.

Conservatives see more utility in divisive, bigoted figures—like Greene and Trump—than in Big Bird, who promotes kindness and friendship.

But the right’s leadership is out of touch with America on this topic. A March poll from the Pew Research Center revealed that more Americans support continued funding for PBS and NPR (43%) than want to eliminate its federal funding (24%).

A February poll from YouGov showed that even Trump voters value the network, with 65% saying the PBS is underfunded or adequately funded, and 72% saying they value PBS’ educational content.

Americans, as they have since the character first emerged, are firmly in Big Bird’s corner. Republicans have yet to learn how to get to Sesame Street.

If Big Bird represents Democratic values, Republicans most certainly rally around Oscar the (Self-Serving) Grouch. And my god, are Bert and Ernie really gay?

Protests Hit Tesla Dealerships Across the World to Repudiate Elon Musk

  From Australia to Europe and the US, demonstrators rallied against carmaker’s dismantling of US federal government. (photo: NBC News)

“Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”

 

Dara Kerr and Edward Helmore / Guardian UK 

 29 March 25

 

Thousands of people worldwide on Saturday protested Elon Musk and his efforts with Donald Trump to dismantle the US federal government, with rallies held in front of nearly every Tesla showroom in the US and many around the world – a concerted effort to go after the billionaire’s deep pockets as the CEO of the electric vehicle maker.

Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don’t buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the “Tesla Takedown” movement.

“Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk,” reads one of the group’s taglines. “Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”

On Saturday, with more than 200 events planned worldwide, protests kicked off midday in front of Tesla showrooms in Australia and New Zealand and then rippled across Europe in countries including Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Each rally was locally organized with original themes. In Ireland, it was “Smash the Fash”, and Switzerland had “Down with Doge”. 

Photos posted to Bluesky by Tesla Takedown showed demonstrators in San Jose, California, close to where Tesla was previously headquartered, and Austin, Texas, where its headquarters are now.

Musk, the world’s richest person, heads the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which he’s tasked with slashing federal budgets in the US, including laying off thousands of workers, though he said in an interview Thursday: “Almost no one has gotten fired.” 

He’s gone after the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education, the National Park Service and several more departments and agencies, causing widespread backlash and criticism. Musk and Tesla did not return requests for comment.

In San Francisco, a crowd of around 200 people gathered in front of the Tesla showroom. Protesters spilled into the busy street and onto the median, confusing the self-driving Waymos trying to get around people darting back and forth.

A boombox blasted "We’re Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister and cars drove by honking enthusiastically. Even passing postal trucks, public buses and fire engines honked in support. People propped up signs with slogans like “Burn your swastikar before it burns you” and “No Doge bags”. Others flew massive American flags mounted upside down.

The block-long Tesla showroom was emptied of all cars, and only a few security guards stood inside, with some San Francisco police outside. At one point, a group of four men wearing red Maga hats and black Doge shirts walked through the crowd, but everything remained calm.

“I’m out here protesting because what I see is a hostile takeover of our country,” said Myra Levy, who was holding a sign that said “Pinche Ladrón” (“fucking thief”). “That is not OK for me. That is not OK for all of us.”

Her friend, Karen Heisler, emphatically added: “We did not vote for this.”

In Berkeley, California, the Tesla showroom has shut down every Saturday for the last month because of the weekly protests, according to salespeople from neighboring retailers. Only security guards have stayed on to guard the building. It’s been the scene of lively demonstrations that have included a mariachi band and a 10-foot cardboard Cybertruck for people to spray-paint. Earlier this month, the showroom’s front door was splattered with red paint. The showroom manager declined to comment.

In New York City, several hundred anti-Tesla protesters gathered outside the EV company’s Manhattan showroom on Saturday. Sophie Shepherd, 23, an organizer with Planet Over Profit, explained that the rally was not about protesting electric cars.

“We’re here to protest Musk, who has essentially held a Tesla car show on the White House lawn,” she said. “We want to disrupt his business as much as possible, so that includes all Teslas, and not just the Cybertruck.”

Marty, 82, said he was attending the New York City rally “because I’m worried about my country”. In the 1960s, he protested the Vietnam war. “Now, it’s the overthrow of our country by oligarchs,” he said. The rally, he went on, was a message to “this guy Elon who is buying our government”.

On Friday, the New York police department said its officers were searching for two suspects who allegedly carved the word “Nazis” and a swastika on the doors of a Tesla Cybertruck in Brooklyn this week, part of an uptick in attacks on Tesla vehicles and facilities across the US since Trump took office.

In Washington DC, organizers planned a rally in front of a new Tesla showroom in Georgetown, making the theme “Tesla Takedown Dance Party”. “Dump the meme stock, join dance lines,” read the flyer. “The stakes couldn’t be higher but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!”

“The hypocrisy is so deep,” said Manissa Maharawal, an assistant professor at American University who has studied anti-tech protests and points out that Tesla has received billions in government funding. “It’s this company that’s been subsidized in a lot of ways by the government, but now the CEO is trying to dismantle the government because he thinks he knows better than everyone, because he comes from the tech industry.”

In the US, protests happened in nearly every state, across the north-east, south and midwest through to the west coast. States with the most planned rallies included Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Texas, Washington and California, totaling more than 100. Several protests also took place throughout Canada.

In London, dozens of demonstrators gathered at a Tesla showroom along the three-lane A40 in West London.

“Musk is hugely abhorrent. He is funding the far right, and meaning that any Republicans who speak out end up not being funded in their next election,” said gay rights campaigner Nigel Warner.

“It’s too overwhelming to do nothing,” said Louise Cobbett-Witten, who has family in the US and was protesting at the Tesla dealership in west London. “There is real solace in coming together like this. Everyone has to do something. We haven’t got a big strategy besides just standing on the side of the street, holding signs and screaming.”

Tesla Takedown organizers reiterated the need for people to continue to speak out and protest against Musk, Trump and Doge. The stakes are high and “no one is coming to save us”, they say on their website.

Maharawal, from American University, said she was struck by that sentiment, saying: “For there to be a nationwide and global protest saying ‘no one’s coming to save us’ just speaks to the level of anger and desperation right now.”

Organizers have also been careful to distance themselves from the violent vandalism that has been carried out against Tesla showrooms. Dozens of Tesla facilities have been attacked in the middle of the night with molotov cocktails, gunshots or graffiti saying things like “Fuck Elon” and “Tesla Is Fascist”.

Trump has vowed to designate any violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.

Tesla Takedown organizers condemn the vandalism. “We are a non-violent grassroots protest movement,” the group says. “We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism.”