Nothing much to look at here. No fog this morning, though there might be some tonight and tomorrow morning. That's the most we can hope from this horrible weather, which will see mostly clear skies and feel a high around 77. "Now I have awoken and the sun is in my face," and the birds are singing and singing. If you want to know what the bird-fuss is all about, I recommend reading these lines by Emily Dickinson:
Split the Lark — and you'll find the Music —
Bulb after Bulb, in Silver rolled —
Scantilly dealt to the Summer Morning
Saved for your Ear when Lutes be old.
September is a long way away.
Get ready for a heatwave. The word on the street is that Sunday and Monday are going to be hotter than July. The 70s we have experienced so far will be replaced by the 80s. The Seattle Times calls this nightmare around the corner "roasty toasty weather."
What is this? NBA is saying what now about the Sonics? Maybe it will get the ball rolling this year? Maybe we will get a team? Naw, not hearing it. This sounds exactly like "talkin' loud and sayin' nothing." Nor will I watch the the NBA Finals, which features our team playing for some city in Oklahoma. No siree. Count me out.
The trees of North Seattle seem to have it much better than those in South Seattle. Here, where I live, the city shows no fear when it comes to threatening or destroying our small but prized canopy. The city's latest target is an "80-foot tall Judkins Park Fir." A plan for a housing development in this area requires the destruction of a giant that's full of life: perching birds, bugs going up and down, a ground crackling with bacteria. But the people at Tree Action Seattle posted a plan by an AIA-certified architect that keeps the housing plan intact without sacrificing the beloved tree. Why does it always have to be one or the other? We are the brainy ape. The third chimpanzee can surely work this shit out.
[UPDATE: that glorious fir apparently became no more while I was composing this post.]
Speaking of vanishing things in South Seattle, there was once a DVD robot (otherwise known as Redbox) on this spot by the Walgreens on Rainier Avenue. The most amazing thing about its vanishing is it took this long to happen. Who in the world still owns a DVD player? Nevertheless, you can still feel, indeed even see, the Redbox Robot's ghost.
Washington State University is facing Trump's harsh music with, of course, layoffs. It plans to cut "a little over 4% (more than $17 million)" from its "core operating budget." Students paying more for much less. Expect the same sort of thing from other institutions of higher learning.
Believe you me, Slog will have more to say about the curious temporary closure of two Capitol Hill spots, Boat Bar and Bateau. They are owned by the celebrated chef Renee Erickson; they recently unionized. What I do know for certain is this: The history of the relationship between owners and workers has never seen a dull day. It's been one damn thing after another.
May's job report is not that bad but also not that good. It's right now doing a Monie Love on us ("in the middle—where that at?—in the middle"). Yahoo Finance put it this way: "US stock futures climbed on Friday following the release of a moderate beat on the monthly jobs report and rising investor hopes of a cooldown in the acrimonious feud between President Trump and Elon Musk."
Cooldown? It looks like it's heating up, bra. Steven Bannon, who The Hill identifies as a MAGA insider, thinks Trump should "investigate Elon Musk’s immigration status." Surely he will find in the records some sorry reason to return the richest man in the world to the country that gave him his born day, South Africa. We have entered the twilight of Dark MAGA. Those days are done.
The blowup of the partnership between President Trump and Elon Musk has upended one of the most powerful dynamics shaping Trump’s second term, and it leaves both men — who lobbed insults and threats at each other on their respective social platforms — with a lot at risk.
Follow live updates.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) June 6, 2025 at 5:40 AM
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I'll pass it to Stranger Editor Hannah Murphy Winter for more on this:
This Is My Favorite Season of Housewives: Elon and Trump have torn off their BFF necklaces. Their throwdown started earlier this week over Trump’s BBB, which Elon called a “disgusting abomination.” But yesterday turned into a full-on digital slapfight, bickering over who deserved the credit for Trump’s election, Elon’s black eye, and why Trump had dropped his support for a Musk associate that he'd nominated to lead NASA. As of midnight last night, there were six stories on the New York Times’s front page about the meltdown, with headlines like: “Sudden Falling-Out Between Trump and a Top Adviser”; “A Prominent Friendship Falls Apart in Spectacular Fashion”; “Read the Insults Lobbed Between Trump and Musk”; and “8 Ways Trump and Musk Could Inflict Pain on One Another.”
— Artologica aka Michele Banks (@artologica.net) June 5, 2025 at 3:08 PM
So two narcissists couldn’t make it work in this crazy messed up world? None of us are surprised. But how often do we get to see a public throwdown between arguably the most politically powerful man in the world and the most financially powerful man in the world? Will Trump wield the power of the presidency against Elon? Will Elon sick his billions of dollars and Twitter trolls on Trump? We’ll see what today holds.
Meanwhile, Senator Warren With the Mic Drop: While Elon and Trump were sniping at each other on Twitter/X/Truth Social/LiveJournal from their respective gold toilets, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a report listing more than 100 instances of possible corruption from Musk.
Back to you, Charles.
"O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark," that's how T.S. Eliot put it in his long poem "Four Quartets." Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) surely missed an opportunity to recite this excellent bit of poetry when, during a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, she told an audience that was very upset about losing crucial things like food stamps and health insurance: “[We] all are going to die. So, for heaven’s sakes, folks [get over it].” Indeed, Senator Ernst:
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark...
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Let's end Slog AM with Denzel Curry's ode to walking:
