March 21, 2025

Friday, March 21, 2025. Annette’s Roundup for Democracy.

Presidents and Education.

Joe is always busy.

He was at the Model UN with students on Saturday.

Trump took time off from attacking universities to eradicate the Department of Education today.

Not only are the kids props, they are DEI props…boy with a yarmulke, brown and white kids, various ages, even some girls. Do you think any of the kids is Trans?

One more thing.

---

Pro Trump Corporations face economic damage.

Some samples.👇

Target was boycotted for surrendering to Trump’s demand to end Diversity Policies.

Tesla stock is down 41.60% year to date.

Not a protest but a company in crisis.

Tesla Recalls More Than 46,000 Cybertrucks Over Panel Detachment Issue

The Tesla CyberTrucks were recalled because their front panel are prone to falling off, therefore risking a crash. Tesla has faced other recalls too, as its vehicles have been known to spontaneously burn.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Tesla is recalling more than 46,000 Cybertrucks after regulators warned the cant rail, an external panel, could detach.
The recall affects Cybertrucks built from November 2023 through Feb. 27 of this year—most Cybertrucks, given it started production in late 2023.

Tesla said it would notify owners and replace the cant rail free of charge.

Shares of Tesla are on pace to decline for the ninth week in a row amid concerns about declining sales and backlash against CEO Elon Musk's political activity.

Tesla (TSLA) is recalling more than 46,000 Cybertrucks after regulators warned an exterior panel can detach from the vehicle, potentially raising the risk of a crash.

The Department of Transportation said the Cybertruck cant rail, a panel that sits above the windows on the electric vehicle’s angular frame, could detach from the body of the car. The notice affects Cybertrucks built from November 2023 through Feb. 27 of this year—most Cybertrucks, given it started production in late 2023.

Tesla said it would replace the cant rail free of charge, with owner notification letters expected to be mailed on May 19.

The news follows a series of other recalls earlier this year and late last year. Just last month, Tesla recalled more than 376,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in the U.S. due to the possible loss of a power-assisted steering feature that could make the vehicles more difficult to steer.

Tesla shares edged close to 2% lower in intraday trading Thursday, leaving them on pace to fall for the ninth week in a row amid worries about declining sales and backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration. (Investopedia)

---

The People are starting to speak.

AOC

---

Trump is always crazy.

Remember Trump knows more about Isis than the generals, more about money, more about construction, more about campaign finance, more about drones, taxes, technology, hurricanes, nuclear arms and now music.

Read and laugh about Trump’s derangement and the supportive madness of his followers.

Touring Kennedy Center, Trump Mused on His Childhood ‘Aptitude for Music’

The president, who recently took over Washington’s major performing arts center, reportedly said that he had not been encouraged to develop his musical talents.

During his first visit to the Kennedy Center since making himself the chairman of its board, President Trump had a lot to say about Broadway shows, dancers in silk tights, the Potomac River and Elvis Presley.

But in a private discussion at the start of a meeting of the center’s board on Monday, Mr. Trump offered something he usually steers away from in bigger settings: a personal anecdote about his childhood.

He told the assembled board members that in his youth he had shown special abilities in music after taking aptitude tests ordered by his parents, according to three participants in the meeting.

He could pick out notes on the piano, he told the board members, some of whom he’s known for years and others who are relatively new to him. But the president said that his father, Fred Trump, was not pleased by his musical abilities, according to the participants, and that he had never developed his talent. One person in the room said Mr. Trump appeared to be joking about his father.

“I have a high aptitude for music,” he said at one point, according to people at the meeting. “Can you believe that?”

“That’s why I love music,” he added.

Mr. Trump’s remarks have not been previously reported. They were not part of an audio recording of the board meeting obtained by The New York Times earlier this week.

But they are a story he has told in private, according to a person with knowledge of the comments, about a period in his life before his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy at the age of 13.

The anecdote came as a surprise to some of the people in the room.

The country singer Lee Greenwood, known for “God Bless the U.S.A,” confirmed in an interview that Mr. Trump had made a point of highlighting his childhood connection to music at the meeting on Monday. Mr. Greenwood, who was appointed to the Kennedy Center’s board by Mr. Trump, has produced a version of the Bible with the president. He said that the two had discussed the president’s abilities before.

“He’s absolutely very creative and very artistic,” Mr. Greenwood said. “I do not doubt that he has a great ear for music.”

Asked about the anecdote, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, did not directly address it but said that the president “is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels.” Mr. Cheung said that, given Mr. Trump’s roles as president and Kennedy Center chair, “there is nobody more uniquely qualified to bring this country, and its rich history of the arts, back to prominence.”

Mr. Trump has long shown an interest in music and theater, and he once dreamed of becoming a Broadway producer. At the meeting on Monday, he polled board members on which was better: “The Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Misérables.” He reminisced about attending the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” in the early 1980s. And he spoke of his love for singers like the Broadway star Betty Buckley and musicals like “Hello, Dolly!” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

“So many great shows,” he said at one point, according to the recording. “So many great shows.”

Mr. Trump moved to oust the Kennedy Center’s previous board chairman, the financier David M. Rubenstein, and all the board members appointed by the Biden administration last month. He had told allies for weeks that he wanted to lead the Kennedy Center, which he has occasionally incorrectly referred to as Lincoln Center, the premier arts venue in his hometown, New York City.

Mr. Trump disparaged the current hit musical “Hamilton” as he toured the center on Monday; its producers canceled a planned tour of the Kennedy Center next year to protest his takeover of the institution, which had been bipartisan for decades. Other artists also canceled engagements there.

The Kennedy Center has hosted and bestowed honors on performers who have been critical of Mr. Trump’s behavior as president, a fact that he and his advisers often mention.

Mr. Trump’s desire to influence programming at one of the leading U.S. arts centers has not surprised some of his longest-serving aides.

Mr. Trump spends hours working on the playlists for his rallies, and blasting music on an iPad at his clubs, as he personally acts as a disc jockey. Some artists have repeatedly asked him to stop using their music.

During his first term, Mr. Trump’s advisers often found that music was a way to calm him when he was furious. On his airplanes — his private one known as Trump Force One, and on the presidential plane, Air Force One — Mr. Trump often blasts the music so loud that it pulses through the cabin.

During a campaign town hall event in Pennsylvania in October, after two attendees required medical attention, Mr. Trump stunned some of his aides by pausing the event and having his team play music for more than half an hour. Mr. Trump stood onstage swaying and dancing as the music played.

During a late-day meeting with aides going over his playlist in the first term, Mr. Trump had the group go through Spotify looking for songs from “Tommy,” the Who’s rock opera, for more than an hour in search of a specific song that he thought he remembered. The aides couldn’t find it. (New York Times)

One more thing.

Eve is sure Trump would have won Wimbledon too.

Trump also knows how to spot talent better than anyone. Take his son Barron.

---

You can always count on Republicans to cry Fraud.

Schimel re-raises unproven election fraud concerns.

The Republican-backed candidate in Wisconsin’s closely watched state Supreme Court race has resurfaced long debunked concerns about voting fraud because of the late reporting of ballots in Milwaukee.

MADISON — The Republican- backed candidate in Wisconsin’s closely watched state Supreme Court race has resurfaced long debunked concerns about voting fraud because of the late reporting of ballots in Milwaukee just two weeks before the April 1 election.

Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general, spoke of the possibility of “bags of ballots” and fraud in Milwaukee during an interview Tuesday on conservative talk radio. Schimel faces Democratic-backed Susan Crawford in the April 1 election with majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court at stake.

Schimel, in an interview on WISN-AM, said his supporters need to “get our votes banked, make this too big to rig so we don’t have to worry that at 11:30 in Milwaukee, they’re going to find bags of ballots that they forgot to put into the machines.”

Schimel said that happened in 2018 and in November “when (U.S. Senate candidate) Eric Hovde was ahead all night, and then all of a sudden, Milwaukee County changed that.”

Republicans and Democrats alike, along with state and Milwaukee election leaders, warned in the run-up to the November election that Milwaukee absentee ballots would be reported late and cause a huge influx of Democratic votes. Milwaukee is the state’s most populated city and is heavily Democratic. Its chief elections official was chosen with bipartisan support.

The reporting of those absentee ballots swung the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, fueling baseless conspiracy theories that the election had been stolen from President Donald Trump.

Milwaukee’s absentee ballots are counted at a central location and reported all at once, often well after midnight on election day. Elections officials for years have made clear that those ballots are reported later than usual due to the sheer number that have to be counted and because state law does not allow them to be processed until polls open.

A bipartisan bill to allow for processing prior to election day died in the Republican-controlled Senate last year. Republicans, who have controlled the Legislature since 2011, routinely complain about slow processing in Milwaukee but have not passed bills to allow for speedier counting.

In 2018, the reporting of more than 47,000 absentee ballots after midnight put Democrat Tony Evers ahead of then-Gov. Scott Walker. Evers went on to win and Walker criticized the late reporting, saying it blindsided him.

And in November, Hovde said he was “shocked” by the reporting of more than 108,000 ballots in Milwaukee early in the morning after the election in his defeat to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Schimel said in the radio interview he didn’t know what happened.

“I don’t know if there was fraud there,” Schimel said. “There’s no way for me to know that. All I know is this: We need to turn our votes out. That’s the best insulation we have against any potential fraud, is just get our people to the polls.”

Asked about his concerns during an appearance later Tuesday at the Milwaukee Rotary Club, Schimel said he brought up fraud because voters often ask him how to guarantee election integrity.

“I tell people, by following the rules,” Schimel said. “And then I tell them, ‘Here’s the best way to make sure your vote isn’t stolen: Go use it.’ That’s the answer.”

Yet despite his concerns, Schimel said: “I will always accept the results of the election.”

Crawford’s spokesperson, Derrick Honeyman, said Schimel was “dabbling in conspiracy theories to please his ally, Elon Musk, and it’s unbecoming of a judge and candidate for the state’s high court.”

Groups funded by billionaire Musk have contributed more than $11 million to help Schimel’s campaign. Crawford is backed by several billionaire Democrats, including philanthropist George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

Schimel’s comments drew criticism from the Democracy Defense Project, a bipartisan coalition promoting truth about elections that includes former Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

“There is no evidence of fraud in Milwaukee, but the failure of the state to allow early counting on absentee ballots before the close of polls feeds into conspiracy theories,” the group said in a statement.

The election comes as the court faces cases on abortion, public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.

The court is currently controlled 4-3 by liberals, but one of them is retiring, creating the battle for the majority. (Associated Press)

The answer to Schimel is support and get out the vote for Susan Crawford.

Keep the Wisconsin Supreme Court blue.

Early voting on now. Election Day is April 1.

Donate and share!

---

Who can resist spring. One day in.