Highlights of Bruce Tour Opening in Minneapolis

Plus our usual cartoons and Colbert, Iran victory or surrender?

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Colbert: Trump bornto cut and run?

Trump likely to declare victory and retreat from Iran tonight, but Paul Krugman observes:

The stock market has soared on the news of potential U.S surrender, which tells you something about how the war is going. Unfortunately, declaring victory and running away will be a lot more difficult than Trump thinks. For one thing, thousands of U.S. ground troops are on their way to the Persian Gulf, and it will be very hard to avoid succumbing to the temptation to use them, at which point we will have entered what Robert Pape calls the “escalation trap.”

At the same time, Trump’s claim that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is other countries’ problem is whistling in the dark.

Meanwhile, not an April Fool’s joke, at NY Times:

A skyscraper with a red, white and blue spire. A golden escalator. Airplanes, including what appears to be Air Force One, displayed in the lobby.

President Trump unveiled a nearly two-minute video rendering, which appeared to include elements generated by artificial intelligence, depicting his future presidential library in downtown Miami on Monday evening. It shows “TRUMP” emblazoned in gold letters across the front of the building above an American flag that in one scene appears to have 56 stars. Inside, visitors are surrounded by the gilded Mar-a-Lago style that now adorns much of the White House.

On the windows outside of the skyscraper, digital screens appear to replay Mr. Trump’s speeches. A golden arch bearing the presidential seal outlines the entrance. Inside, visitors walk beneath what appears to be Air Force One near the entrance. An auditorium features a massive golden statue onstage of Mr. Trump stretching his fist nearly to the ceiling.

Heather Cox Richardson:

Another of Trump’s executive orders was in court today, when Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that much of Trump’s order stripping NPR and PBS of funds was unconstitutional. As Brian Stelter of CNN reported, Moss quoted a Supreme Court ruling when he wrote: “The First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power—including the power of the purse—‘to punish or suppress disfavored expression’ by others.” Republicans in Congress have since voted to cut federal funding from NPR and PBS, but the decision is a victory for the First Amendment.

Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also stymied Trump today when he ruled that Trump cannot proceed with his plans for a giant ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House without approval from Congress.

An American journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad.

March 31 (Reuters) - Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the border and 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure, the defence minister said on ‌Tuesday, vowing to inflict Gaza-like destruction in the area.

How drones are smuggling contraband to British prisons “as if by Uber Eats.”

Bruce Launches Tour in Minneapolis

You Tube offered us the first two songs last night live, after opening with a political call, and Tom Morello much in evidence:

Encore with another political speech for “Chimes of Freedom” (in my book “The Tunnels” I covered the day he played it at the Berlin Wall):

Also in encore a tribute to local guy for “Purple Rain”:

Yes, he still does with Morello a song featured in my upcoming Woody film, “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Then today’s there is this, we pray, April Fool’s joke…..

From Tunes to Toons

Bramhall:

Ohman:

Sack:

Davies:

de Adder:

Photo Finish

75 degrees in NY yesterday, has Spring sprung?