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Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These Pictures Of Trump's Finished White House Rose Garden Patio Are Going Viral For All Of The Wrong Reasons
As you all know by now, Donald Trump has paved over the White House Rose Garden lawn. Why? Because it's being modeled after his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, duh. The famous garden was redesigned by Jackie Kennedy in the 1960s to add that lawn, some trees, and more flowers. That layout has remained largely unchanged, like here's a picture from the 2010s: Here's Obama on it: And then, as you may remember, Melania Trump did her own remodel of it in 2020 when she took out some trees and added in that limestone path: Well, now we've got a patio. ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent posted pictures of the "new Rose Garden:" jonkarl/Twitter: @jonkarl As you can see, the sewer drainage is mini American flags. And it's A LOT of concrete. Perfect for those DC summers! Needless to say, people aren't big fans. "'Garden.' I do not think that word means what you think it means," one person pointed out. "Who in god's name thought this was a good idea?" another person asked. And a bunch of people are wondering what the heck is up with the hatred of grass: "Why do they hate grass?" Then you have the comparisons. This person said it looked like a food court during Covid. Another person said it looked like a drained pool at a bankrupt casino. And this person said it reminded them of an "overpriced wedding venue in New Jersey." One small detail people are pointing out is the position/design of the sewer drain, "Trump put his Presidential seal right next to a sewer drain. Feels right." "The 'Stars & Stripes' drainage seems appropriate.'" And finally, you have the people hoping the next President tears it up: "We're tearing it out and putting the roses back in beginning on January 21, 2029, right?" "The next president should rip this up and put the garden back. He really has no sense of taste, and I say this as a guy whose house is a monument to my love of kitsch and mid-century American barcaloungers." Thoughts?
Axios
17 minutes ago
- Axios
Blue-collar revenge: The things AI can't do are making a comeback
AI is supposed to displace millions of workers in the coming years — but when your toilet won't flush at 2 am, you're not going to call ChatGPT. Why it matters: The reshaping of the American economy promises to offer a kind of revenge for the blue-collar laborer, as white-collar workers become largely dispensable, but the need for skilled trades only grows. The big picture: Companies are already boasting of saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year by using AI instead of humans. The stock market rewards are too enticing for the C-suite to ignore. But ask those same executives who's going to run the wiring for their data centers, or who's putting the roof on the building, and just how well those skilled technicians are getting paid. It's become a key Trump administration economic talking point: Blue-collar wages are rising faster now than at the start of any other administration going back to Nixon. Driving the news: A recent Microsoft paper analyzing the most "AI-proof" jobs generated a list of the work most and least vulnerable to the rise of the LLM. The 40 most-vulnerable jobs (translators, historians, sales reps, etc), basically all office work, employ about 11 million people. The 40 least-vulnerable jobs (dredge operators, roofers, etc.), just about all manual labor, employ around 5.5 million. All those extra folks have to go somewhere. What they're saying: "We've been telling kids for 15 years to code. 'Learn to code!' we said. Yeah, well, AI's coming for the coders. They're not coming for the welders. They're not coming for the plumbers. They're not coming for the steamfitters or the pipe fitters or the HVACs. They're not coming for the electricians," Mike Rowe, the TV host and skilled-trades philanthropist, said at Sen. Dave McCormick's (R-Pa.) AI summit last month. "There is a clear and present freak-out going on right now," Rowe said, as everyone from politicians to CEOs recognizes just how bad they need tradespeople to keep the economy running. Yes, but: While the AI boom will create lots of jobs for skilled trades, eventually there'll be less demand to build more data centers, which may in turns sap demand for those tradespeople too. The intrigue: There's already a labor shortage in many of these blue-collar professions, one that AI will, ironically, only make worse (think the electricians for the data centers, for example). Factories alone are short about 450,000 people a month, per the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). "We're really talking about high-tech, 21st Century, rewarding, well-paying jobs," Jay Timmons, the CEO of the NAM, tells Axios. "Manufacturers are really embracing what's coming, and they accept the responsibility." Training is the answer, but that will require a large-scale, national effort —not just for up-and-coming students, but for mid-career folks forced into a pivot. "Everybody needs these roles, they're high-security roles," says Carolyn Lee, president of the NAM-affiliated Manufacturing Institute. She points, for example, to a program already in 16 states to train maintenance technicians to keep factories running — precisely the kind of job people like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have said are the future of the workforce. Students in an early cohort of that program, on average, were earning $95,000 a year within five years of graduating. One of the challenges, Timmons notes, is selling that to people who may not understand how lucrative these careers can be: "You have an economy-wide perception problem."
Axios
17 minutes ago
- Axios
Voting Rights Act's 60th anniversary comes amid uncertainty
Barriers that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to eliminate have reappeared in modern forms as the country marks its 60th anniversary. The big picture: A backlash to the 2020 racial reckoning has made it almost impossible for any bipartisan effort to renew the Voting Rights Act — even though the country is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever. The big picture: President Trump continues to push baseless claims about voter fraud while pressuring states like Texas to redraw congressional district boundaries with little consideration to historic racial discrimination. In March, Trump signed an executive order to tighten voting restrictions — including calls for proof of citizenship to vote. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE), a Republican-led bill that would codify those requirements into law, passed the House in April but stalled in the Senate. Meanwhile, GOP-leaning states also have passed bills in recent years that critics argue impose new restrictions on Black and Indigenous voters. The latest: Earlier this week, Sen. Raphael Warnock reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, backed by Senate leaders and civil rights groups. The bill would restore federal oversight of voting changes in states with histories of discrimination — and ban voter roll purges for missed elections. Multiple groups promoted its introduction to Congress, but it's unlikely to pass either of the GOP-controlled chambers. What they're saying:"We're going to continue to fight for that bill, even though it's an uphill climb — particularly because of the Senate filibuster," National Urban League president Marc Morial told Axios. Morial says every Republican president since its passage has signed every extension, but now it's a partisan issue fueled by far-right movements. "This is a modern-day power grab." The other side: Some Republicans contend that the voting changes are "common sense" reforms to require ID and prevent noncitizens from voting — which is exceptionally rare and illegal. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Axios earlier this year that voting rights groups' concerns about such changes were "absurd armchair speculation." Yes, but: Older Black Americans, especially in the South, are being disproportionately targeted by new documentation requirements, Color Of Change PAC national director Jamarr Brown told Axios. That's because rural, poor areas like the "Black Belt" of Alabama and Mississippi lack the infrastructure to get voters the required documents in a timely and easy fashion. Arizona and Montana have passed new laws barring ballot collection important to Native American voters living in isolated regions, since they lack reliable mail service. "This isn't about proof of citizenship. This is about eliminating people from the electorate… to get a desired political outcome," Brown said. Between the lines: Since taking office, Trump has attempted to reverse many of the gains made during the Civil Rights Movement and unravel the late President Lyndon B. Johnson's civil rights legacy from six decades ago. The clawback on voting rights comes as the Trump administration also pulls back on civil rights enforcement and focuses on " anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color. The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday released new guidelines for recipients of federal funding and directed them not to be involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") programs. Flashback: Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965, after the attack on unarmed peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Ala. Johnson had encouraged the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to march for voting rights to sway the public. Stunning stat: Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the number of Black Americans elected in the U.S. has shot up from just a few in 1964 to about 9,000. Most Black Americans are aligned with the Democratic Party, but Black and Latino Republicans have won high-profile races in Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico and California. The bottom line: Voter suppression efforts now target Latinos, Asian Americans, and young voters, alongside Black communities.
