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.

If you stand on this spot, you can hear the distant echoes of ’10 Things I Hate About You.’ 

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.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) June 6, 2025 at 5:40 AM

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.” 

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— 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…

 
View on Threads

Let’s end Slog AM with Denzel Curry’s ode to walking:

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

44 replies on “Slog AM: Trump and Elon Meltdown, Renee Erickson Temporarily Closes Two Restaurants That Recently Unionized, a Heatwave Is Coming to Seattle”

  2. @1 – oh it’s just a little spat between two men with huge personalities / egos. Elon is right about the BBB, it does not cut spending nearly enough. But Trump couldn’t impose a hard line because the House and Senate are too evenly divided and most “Republicans” are content to spend us into oblivion.

    Luckily, Trump does not hold grudges so there is plenty of opportunity for these guys to patch up their relationship and get back to Making America Great Again.

  3. “Who in the world still owns a DVD player?”

    Oh Charles, lest you forget your former colleagues Chase and Jas and their Unstreamable series? Also Scarecrow Video is still going. I pictured you as a film noir buff.

    Also, sorry that your pseudo NBA joy is blemished by politics over Oklahoma.

  7. I love how these two adult babies get in the bitchiest catfight this side of the real housewives franchise and their little minion bros are like “just a couple of many men having a man fight, you girlies wouldn’t understand”. If straight men knew how gay they look to the rest of us they would kill themselves.

  12. Charles, for once Phoebe and I are in agreement. Why should I pay to rent or own a streaming version of a film I already own in DVD format?

    @4:

    Ah, for those halcyon days of the OG SLOG! I still sometimes wonder who eventually ended up with the Fnarf Memorial Bed Pan that got passed around for several years at SLOG Happy white elephant gift exchange parties – remember when we could actually meet-up in-person? When we really only had Mr. Poe/Ecce Homunculus and Seattle Blues as our resident contrarians (I never considered Will In Seattle as such; he was more like the resident whipping boy, at least for Fnarf and a couple of others)? And they were decidedly more civil compared to the sorry lot of insecure, whingy, right-wing troll-bois we have to endure around here these days.

  14. It is well known that one need only make a conciliatory statement and Trump will invite you back into the fold.

    Except of course Hillary Clinton. She’s a horrible person who fabricated the entire Russian collusion narrative (not to mention her emails) and deserves to spend the rest of her wretched life in prison. And while I have no doubt that Trump despises her, he also stated publicly that he would not pursue criminal charges against her because of the negative impacts that would have on the country. Always the Statesmen, Mr. Trump.

  16. It’s even better known that trump turns on everyone once they’re no longer useful to him, and Elon is an attention starved junkie who makes a mess of everything he touches. They’re 2 catty bitches who live for drama. It was always going to end with a messy break up.

  17. “September is a long way away” – preach Charles

    @13 hoping for a full on Cartman (after last night’s last fractional second win, hope is strong)!

  19. Hard to believe, but I actually agree with WereBackBaby, sort of. The Trump-Musk fallout will – if it hasn’t already – prove to be just more clickbait.

    “Except of course Hillary Clinton. She’s a horrible person who fabricated the entire Russian collusion narrative…” Yup.

    “and deserves to spend the rest of her wretched life in prison.” They all do, so this is correct.

    “…he would not pursue criminal charges against her because of the negative impacts that would have on the country.” Nope. He can’t do anything to her because she has people who are more powerful than he is behind her – the GOP still hasn’t succeeded in taking down the neoliberal cabal of the DNC. Not only that, he can’t expose any of the horrors of US colonialism (euphemistically referred to as “her e-mails”) in the Islamic world without smearing himself and his GOP comrades in crime. Both of the major duopoly parties are neck deep in international shenanigans of the worst kind.

    To repeat, they all belong in prison.

  21. @18 – I present interesting viewpoints that people want to engage with. I know you would prefer that everybody hold the same institutionally approved opinions but I have to stay true to myself.

  23. Democrats are still whining about things that President Reagan did 40 years ago.

    Stop pretending you’re different

  24. @23 Using the man who literally ruined the entire economy of the country for every future generation as your example is certainly a choice. Might as well use 9/11 or the holocaust as an example next lol.

  26. @20, @25: I once had a record collection. Now I have an external hard drive, labeled “Record Collection.” MUCH easier to carry!

  27. “The history of the relationship between owners and workers has never seen a dull day. It’s been one damn thing after another.”

    Progressives – If business owners can’t afford to pay a living wage they should close their business

    Renee Erickson – My costs exceed my sales so I’ll need to close and come up with a new format

    Progressives – look at this evil business owner punishing her staff and putting them out of work

    It’s comedy gold Jerry!

  28. @21: Interesting – the last time I checked, both major political parties who run the entire US empire make public statements against my POVs on a regular basis, and the prez is trying to get rid of all the foreigners who share these same views. Please name these obscure institutions which support my views – I’ll let you know if the former have any relation to the latter (just for yucks, of course).

    And – it should be added – your reply was ungracious, considering I’d just paid you a basically undeserved compliment. You’re just a right-wing influencer regurgitating propaganda onto the digital page – I didn’t have to say that you were, coincidentally, correct on a couple of points.

  29. @22: You haven’t earned the right to say that about me the way I earned the right to say it about you. The only one writing long-winded rants justifying racist police violence, US-led regime changes, homophobic bigotry, &c., &c., is you. I’m the consistent, ethically sound one – sorry! I’ve pointed out to you that your sources are flawed, but you haven’t taken that into consideration – you’re still too locked in your little glass house to be able to successfully throw stones.

  31. @27 Given that technology has been steadily eroding the ability of people to do useful work at a rate that allows them both to live and afford a decent life, perhaps it’s time we stopped saddling businesses with footing the bill on both employer provide hellth insurance and a living wage.

    Universal Basic Income could allow for a much freer labor market.

  32. I for one am glad that Renee’s $10 per donut (exaggerated) place is closing. Blame unions, blame Starbucks, blame me. It was a fuckin’ donut fer chris sake. Go to Dunkin!

  33. Bateau and Boat Bar are closing bc a) the chefs are moving on and b) they are renovating the space. The restaurant workers unionized earlier this year and that has nothing to do with the closure.

    Does it suck for some of the staff who might not have positions until it reopens, yes. Is the closure bc of unionization, no.

  38. @33: “The restaurant workers unionized earlier this year and that has nothing to do with the closure.”

    Which is why the Stranger heavily implied it was owner retaliation against the workers for unionizing, but didn’t actually say that.

    @34: With all of the money we now pay to overcharging healthcare companies, and their overpriced CEOs?

  39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5zI0mnXqw

    The Trump/Musk is a distraction from the fact that we all lost from their successful dismantling of the government, they just couldn’t agree over whose business stole more from the American people and everyone tolerating these shitbags in office one more day to wipe their filthy asses with the flag and constitution of the USA. E PLURIBUS UNUM on the top of our Congress, and here we are outlawing people because their birthplace.

    GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE

    Or give back the statute of liberty with everything it has ever stood for, all for a mortal Ozymandias reborn in our age.

    Fight for the future!

  40. WeAreBackBaby might be the most hilarious parody commenter in the history of SLOG… like, this can’t be a real person who actually believes the the tripe he types. It HAS to be an act. Of course, on the remote chance that it isn’t an act, this guy’s comments are all you need to know about the delusions of the MAGA cult.

  43. Where’s kristofarian (as Swiftness asked the other day) – but more importantly, why do we miss him?

  44. @40 Go to any Facebook post about the casting of a black man in Harry Potter or any post of a sports team that posted a rainbow logo this month and you’ll see that WereBackBaby isn’t even close to being a parody unfortunately.

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