2025-04-16 02:23:41
It's gonna be a while before we experience a blue wave in America. But we may be witnessing the beginning of a crimson wave (yes, it's reddish, but a little added purple is a start). Breaking a dangerous and depressing trend led by Columbia, Harvard rejected the demands of the Trump administration. NYT(Gift Article): Harvard’s Decision to Resist Trump Is 'of Momentous Significance.' "Harvard University is 140 years older than the United States, has an endowment greater than the G.D.P. of nearly 100 countries and has educated eight American presidents. So if an institution was going to stand up to the Trump administration’s war on academia, Harvard would be at the top of the list. Harvard did that forcefully on Monday in a way that injected energy into other universities across the country fearful of the president’s wrath, rejecting the Trump administration’s demands on hiring, admissions and curriculum. Some commentators went so far as to say that Harvard’s decision would empower law firms, the courts, the media and other targets of the White House to push back as well." The fact that Harvard's refusal to kowtow to a budding dictator is described as a choice of momentous significance tells us just how fast and far our institutions have fallen. How momentous the decision will prove to be depends on how many other institutions and individuals follow suit. This is a fight the sharks in the administration want and they smell blood in the water. To win, Harvard and the rest of us are gonna need a bigger boat.
+ "Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect.Let’s hope other institutions follow suit." Obama and Yale faculty back Harvard.
+ Trump administration freezes more than $2.2 billion after Harvard rejects its demands. And, Trump threatens to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status.
+ Life's Capitch and Then You Die. "Harvard is changing course, perhaps because it grasped the true takeaway from Columbia’s cautionary tale: Appeasement doesn’t work, because the Trump administration isn’t really trying to reform elite higher education. It’s trying to break it." The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Harvard Learned From Columbia’s Mistake. "If cooperation and even capitulation don’t get you anywhere, why give in to the Trump administration’s demands?"
Why settle for the consequence-free breaking of rules when you can delete the rules altogether? NYT (Gift Article): Inside Trump’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations. "Across the more than 400 federal agencies that regulate almost every aspect of American life, from flying in airplanes to processing poultry, Mr. Trump’s appointees are working with the Department of Government Efficiency...to launch a sweeping new phase in their quest to dismantle much of the federal government: deregulation on a mass scale." (We need political Metamucil on a mass scale: a return to regularity.)
One of the sad ironies of this era is that due process gave Trump enough time to become president and take due process away. Yesterday, I led with the Trump administration's defiance of the Supreme Court, refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home from an El Salvadorian prison, and plans to try to send American citizens to prisons abroad. What's important to remember is that there's more than one innocent person who was sent to that prison under an act that hasn't been used since WWII. Maybe a lot more. NYT (Gift Article): ‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants. "Most of the men do not have criminal records in the United States or elsewhere in the region, beyond immigration offenses, a New York Times investigation has found. And very few of them appear to have any clear, documented links to the Venezuelan gang. As they were being expelled, the detainees repeatedly begged officials to explain why they were being deported, and where they were being taken, one of their lawyers told the courts. At no point, the lawyer said, did officers indicate that the men were being sent to El Salvador or that they were removed under the Alien Enemies Act. The Alien Enemies Act gives the U.S. government broad powers to detain people during times of war, but Supreme Court rulings make clear that detainees have a right to challenge the government, and are entitled to a hearing, before their removal."
+ Why is the Kilmar Abrego Garcia getting all the attention? Because one Justice Dept lawyer told the truth. These days, even for a lawyer who has defended Trump policies, that's a firing offense. This Lawyer Defended Republicans and Democrats. His Candor Cost Him His Job.
+ As they usually do, Reveal went a little deeper into this story. The Real Reason El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Cozied Up to Trump. "If the trial in New York proves Mr. Bukele’s deals with them, it could potentially be very damaging since it would mean that he had illegal deals with a terrorist organization and also illegally freed some of the terrorist organization leaders."
+ Returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn't the only judicial decision being flouted by Trump during Monday's Oval Office presser. Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event.
After much outrage, the webpage was restored, but "on the morning of March 19, those three letters [DEI] were added to a URL for an article on the U.S. Department of Defense website about baseball icon Jackie Robinson—and that article was then surreptitiously taken offline ... Rachel Robinson—the 102-year-old widow of one Jack Roosevelt Robinson—woke up to an affront on her dead husband’s legacy by the very country he served with honor, only to rise a few weeks later and witness not just the utter silence of the league he integrated, but her husband’s old employer specifically fawning over the brute who ordered the whole thing." The Ringer: Jackie Robinson Would Be Appalled.
+ "A female Army Ranger for the first time competed in the annual Best Ranger Competition, and her two-soldier team finished the grueling three-day event over the weekend ... White, 25, is a Black infantry officer assigned to the maneuver captains career course."
Welcome Splat: We're landing many self-inflicted blows to the economy. I keep harping on one in particular because I think the problem will continue to grow. "The US economy is set to lose billions of dollars in revenue in 2025 from a pullback in foreign tourism and boycotts of American products, adding to a growing list of headwinds keeping recession risk elevated." And from Quartz: Tourists are ditching America. "The biggest declines came from Western Europe, which registered a 17% year-over-year decrease in arrivals by plane. Luxembourg residents stayed away in droves, leading the way with a 44% decline. Denmark, Austria, and Iceland weren’t far behind."
+ Back Burner: Meanwhile, Europeans who are required to come are taking new precautions usually reserved for their rivals. "The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amid fears of espionage in Trump’s America."
+ Magnetic Repulsion: "China’s decision to retaliate against President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs by ordering restrictions on the exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets is a warning shot across the bow of American national security, industry and defense experts said." NYT (Gift Article): China’s Halt of Critical Minerals Poses Risk for U.S. Military Programs. (Do we need better trade deals with China? Yes. But we needed a longterm strategy. Not whatever it is we're seeing now.)
+ Tinder Box: "Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species." Ants too small to concern you? Spanish police arrest two people linked to cat smuggling ring based in Mallorca.
+ Parent Company: "A young generation is taking a bigger interest in joining the family business, spurred by a cooling labor market that is making it more difficult to land entry-level jobs, economists and business analysts say. At the same time, their parents and grandparents—baby boomers and Gen Xers who own the vast majority of America’s businesses—are feeling more urgency about making succession plans as they look toward retirement." WSJ (Gift Article): A Young Generation Goes to Work for Mom and Dad Inc.
"If you pay attention to AI company branding, you'll notice a pattern: Circular shape (often with a gradient). Central opening or focal point. Radiating elements from the center. Soft, organic curves. Sound familiar? It should, because it's also an apt description of... well, you know. A butthole." (I still hold out hope that my butthole will reach the singularity before AI does.)
+ While we're on the topic... JD Vance dropped Ohio State's college football trophy during a White House celebration.
2025-04-15 04:04:03
Two authoritarians walk into an Oval Office. No, that's not the set up for a joke. It's reality playing out right in front of our eyes. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that a man mistakenly sent from America to a famously abusive El Salvadorian prison should be returned. The worst case scenario was that the Trump administration would make believe that the decision was out of their hands and pretend to leave the decision up to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. And here we are. Bukele told reporters he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. "How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States? ... Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous." Trump then turned to Bukele and said of the assembled reporters: "They'd love to have a criminal released into our country. These are sick people." NBC: President of El Salvador says he won't return mistakenly deported man to US.
+ Look at these two in the Oval Office. This is what American has become. American Exceptionalism has turned into America Acceptionalism: We're all getting a wake-up call about how much Americans are willing to accept. And we're likely to soon find out how much this Supreme Court is willing to accept from a defiant ruler whom they've already granted immunity.
+ "The Roberts Court will now have to decide whether to side with the Constitution or with a lawless president asserting the power to disappear people at will. This is not a power that any person, much less an American president, is meant to have." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Constitutional Crisis Is Here.
+ Heather Cox Richardson: "Make no mistake: as Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error either because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens."
+ Surely she's exaggerating... Oh wait. Trump Reveals He Asked A.G. to Look Into Deporting U.S. Citizens.
+ "Before press came in — but while live feed was running on Bukele’s feed — Trump said to him: 'home-growns are next … You’re gonna need to build about 5 more places.'" The reaction in the room? Laughter.
+ A reminder: "The majority of the more than 200 immigrants he’s already sent to El Salvador were not murderers or drug dealers. They were ordinary people without criminal records, victim to the Trump administration’s baseless lies about their pasts."
+ WaPo: No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office found. "An internal memo, prepared days before Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE agents, raises doubts about the Trump administration’s claims that she supports Hamas."
+ Over the weekend, the US deported 10 more alleged gang members to El Salvador. How will we know for sure they're gang members without due process? The same way we'll know if American citizens sent to foreign prisons without due process are really guilty of something. We won't.
Some good news from the attack on higher eduction. Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands. From University President Alan M. Garber: "No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." Oh yeah, we live in America.
+ "This is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and expand your reach not by buying real estate but by bringing education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement. Alternatively, you can try to negotiate with a mafia boss who wants to see you grovel. When these negotiations fail, as they inevitably will, it will be too late to ask for the public’s support." M Gessen in the NYT (Gift Article): This Is How Universities Can Escape Trump’s Trap, If They Dare.
+ Adam Unikowsky in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why My Firm Is Standing Up for the Constitution. "Big Law should remain independent rather than have the government dictate who it represents." (These battles can be won, but only if a lot more universities and law firms join the fight.)
"President Donald Trump bitterly attacked '60 Minutes' shortly after the CBS newsmagazine broadcast stories on Ukraine and Greenland on Sunday, saying the network was out of control and should 'pay a big price' for going after him." The big question here is not how 60 Minutes will respond. They'll keep reporting. The big question is how CBS owner Paramount will respond. The same goes for the big corporate owners of other major media brands. They have big dollars at stake and their news orgs are a rounding error.
+ Meanwhile, Trump reminded Americans of his view on the invasion of Ukraine: "You have millions of people dead. Millions of people dead because of three people. ... Let's say Putin number one, but let's say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, number two, and Zelensky. And all I can do is try and stop it."
+ Days after more talks with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Putin launched a deadly missile attack that resulted in many civilian deaths. I suppose this was partly Biden and Zelensky's fault too?
"One Saturday morning in August of 2021, more than 200 people assembled in an Arlington church for the funeral of Richard Hanneman, a onetime Capitol Hill staffer and longtime trade association executive who died of lung cancer at the age of 78. Four of Hanneman’s seven children spoke at the service. So did two of his grandchildren and his best friend...But the most compelling presence was the third speaker on the program, a white-haired man in a dark suit. Dick Hanneman himself." Dan Pink in WaPo (Gift Article): Why not attend your own funeral? (I hate going to out to social events. The one good thing about death is that it provides a perfect excuse to RSVP No.)
Chiplash: Tariffs on Tariffs off. Over the weekend, tariff exceptions were made for phones and electronics, which was good news for Apple. By Monday, new chip tariffs were being threatened that would be bad news for Apple. Welcome to another day of market whiplash. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs are expecting a recession.
+ A Jury of One? "The Federal Trade Commission's blockbuster antitrust case against Meta kicks off on Monday in a courtroom in Washington, D.C. It's the culmination of a nearly six-year investigation into whether the social media giant broke competition laws in acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp." Because this is a new American age, stakeholders on both sides are directly lobbying the president.
+ Kleptomania: "We are living through a revolutionary change, a broad shift away from the transparency and accountability mandated by most modern democracies, and toward the opaque habits and corrupt practices of the autocratic world." Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Kleptocracy, Inc. Meanwhile, from WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Administration Retreats From White-Collar Criminal Enforcement. (Time for a Midnight Run digression: "I'm a white collar criminal.")
+ Rory Rory Hallelujah: "It happened! It happened. So many times it seemed like it never would. There was the 0-for-38 streak in major tournaments dating back to 2014. The heartbreak at the U.S. Open in 2023 and 2024. The double bogeys at holes 15 and 17 during Thursday’s opening round of the Masters. The opening double bogey on Sunday, followed by the shocking double bogey at the par-5 13th, which turned a seeming runaway victory into a whole new ballgame. The Rory McIlroy Roller Coaster. It’s been impacting golf fans—and McIlroy himself—for decades now." By winning the Masters, Rory McIlroy Finally, Finally Did It.
+ Tinder Box: "This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society. And I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other. It has to stop." Fire set at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home is the latest in a string of political violence.
+ Flight of Fancy: In a marketing plan that was out of this world, Blue Origin's all-female flight launched to the edge of space with Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez on board.
+ Need a Ride? Can old school and new tech coexist? Yes, apparently. Because people have been leaving handwritten notes in Waymos. Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers. (I thought the whole point of Waymos was that you wanted to ride alone...)
Viewers of the White Lotus watched a scene that featured what looked like the world's biggest squirt gun fight. Apparently, it's a real thing. Songkran: The world's biggest water fight. (Wait, so squirting is real?)
2025-04-12 03:59:15
Among the many immigrants the Trump administration sent to a draconian prison in El Salvador is (at least) one who they admit was sent there in error. Yet, the administration has thus far argued it can't or won't bring back Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The case reached the Supreme Court where all nine justices agreed (think about that for a second) that the administration "must 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvadorand to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." Well, today, the Trump administration defied a federal judge’s order to provide an explanation for how it intended to do so. The executive branch going out on a limb with this position is extreme for several reasons. First, the person who was sent to a foreign jail by mistake is still there as the government delays. Second, the notion that a person sent to a foreign prison cannot be returned doesn't bode well for due process for immigrants, or for anyone else. (Trump Says He'd "Love" to Deport US Citizens to El Salvador Gulags if It's Legal.) Third, it calls into question whether this executive branch will follow the directives of the judicial branch. NYT: Trump Administration Defies Judge Seeking Details on Plan to Return Wrongly Deported Man.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): The Supreme Court just set up a potentially huge clash with Trump.
+ "The Trump administration could choose to comply with the court order and secure Abrego Garcia’s return. It could also choose the path of open defiance. But it might instead make a token effort to retrieve Abrego Garcia and then shrug, telling the Court that it tried its best but was unsuccessful." The Atlantic(Gift Article): The Confrontation Between Trump and the Supreme Court Has Arrived.
+ Here's an interesting (if depressing) conversation between Andrew Weissmann and Lawrence O’Donnell about the Justice Department's remarkable callousness in this case, and what's at stake.
+ This is a critical case. But it's just one example of people being sent to a foreign prison, rounded up, or deported without due process. The New Yorker: The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to Self-Deport.
+ She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her. (Feel safer?) And: Australian with working visa detained and deported on returning to US from sister’s memorial. "He says the official then told him: 'Trump is back in town; we’re doing things the way we should have always been doing them.'"
Christy Powers has "worked through three economic downturns since 1999. Operating out of Frederick, Maryland, a commuter-train ride from Washington, Powers said more and more of her clients—especially the large swath of federal workers—are 'coming in telling me how stressed they are.' Others are halting services altogether to save cash. Is Powers a financial planner? A real estate agent? Nope: She’s a massage therapist, and she and her service-industry colleagues working in beauty, hair and personal care have been witnessing firsthand some of the earliest possible signs the US is tumbling into recession." Bloomberg(Gift Article): The Beauty Salon Recession Indicator.
+ Looks like the beauty salon indicator is pretty accurate. US consumer sentiment plummets to second-lowest level on recordsgoing back to 1952.
+ "The United States gets vital goods from China that cannot be replaced any time soon or made at home at anything less than prohibitive cost. Reducing such dependence on China may be a reason for action, but fighting the current war before doing so is a recipe for almost certain defeat, at enormous cost." Foreign Affairs: Beijing Has Escalation Dominance in the U.S.-China Tariff Fight.
+ So has the impact on consumer sentiment and retirement accounts shaken Trump's support? Among the swing voters, probably. Among the true believers, hell no. WSJ (Gift Article): Trust Unshaken: Trump Voters Are Sticking With Their Guy. "When Trump at last announced the tariffs—levied on friends and enemies—many of them saw the move less in economic terms than as a moment of redemption: The country had gone astray, and something had to be done. Even something radical."
Speaking at a summit put on by tech investors, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon praised the use of A1 in education several times. Not AI, but A1, like the sauce. "McMahon said she’d heard about 'a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year,' which she said was a 'wonderful thing.'" Linda McMahon mixed up AI and A.1. — so of course now the steak sauce is all over it.
What to Watch: I'm hardly the first person to recommend Adolescence on Netflix. But it really is awesome. Everyone in the cast is excellent, the topic couldn't be more timely, and somehow, each entire episode is shot in a single take. For something a little lighter, the very excellent show Hacks returns to Max this weekend. And this season includes the excellent Jimmy Kimmel playing himself on the show. Hacks star Jean Smart appeared on Kimmel this week and it was, as you'd imagine, incredibly enjoyable.
+ What to Hear: An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlileon Paramount Plus is filled with songs from the duo's new album and some of their biggest individual hits. Need to be cheered up? This will work. For more music, this is first weekend at Coachella, and the best way to watch is from your own couch. Coachella will be streaming on YouTube. But wait, there's more. Lady Gaga was recently on Howard Stern and killed on a couple of songs, including an acoustic version of Abracadabra and Perfect Celebrity.
Don't Even Think It: Rubio "said that while Khalil’s activities were 'otherwise lawful,' letting him remain in the country would undermine 'U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States." AP: Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs. NBC: 130 Jewish Georgetown members slam Trump for 'weaponizing' faith in arresting professor. The question isn't whether you agree with the views being espoused, but whether you believe views should be allowed to be espoused. Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic(Gift Article): Trump’s Jewish Cover Story. "Presented as an attempt to protect Jews on campus, these threats are actually part of a much wider war against American higher education, which Trump and his allies perceive as a citadel of hostile cultural power." (Here's a tought for your Passover Seder this weekend: Don't trust people who think Heiling is funny to protect Jewish interests.)
+ Yale Tide: Yesterday, I shared my concern about Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley leaving the United States. Obey Watch. It's definitely worth reading Snyder's take on the matter: On leaving Yale. "I did not leave Yale because of anything Trump is doing; the chronology and the psychology are all wrong; I was not and am not fleeing anything."
+ Whoops: "Doctors, researchers and public health experts warn that the measles outbreak, which has grown to more than 600 cases, may just be the beginning. They say outbreaks of preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and the Trump administration slashing spending on the country’s public health infrastructure." “Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline.
+ Gov in the Time of Cholera: "At least five children and three adults with cholera died as they went in search of treatment in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration shuttered local health clinics during the country’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, the international charity Save the Children reported this week." NYT (Gift Article): Children Seeking Cholera Care Die After U.S. Cuts Aid, Charity Says.
+ Space Force Feeding: Space Force Colonel Removed After Disavowing JD Vance’s Comments About Acquiring Greenland.
+ Commencement Speech: "Does it do justice to what she’s witnessing — to the Trump administration’s abandonment of, and indifference to, a man consigned to a hellhole in El Salvador because of an administrative error? To Trump’s morally perverse rewrite of history, in which Ukraine is evil and Russia rightly aggrieved? To his pardoning of the savages who smashed their way into the Capitol and bloodied police officers on Jan. 6, 2021? To his veneration of autocrats and his administration’s fervent efforts to turn him into one? To its conception of power not as a blessing that compels you to be generous but as a bludgeon that allows you to be cruel?" Frank Bruni in the NYT: What Do You Tell a College Student Graduating Into This America? (Maybe it's safest to just say, "Congrats.")
+ Lightning Crashes: "Lightning strikes kill millions of trees each year — but it turns out that some large tropical trees can not only survive a strike, but also benefit from its effects, according to a recent study."
+ Blowin' in the Wind? People in Northern China have a more pressing concern than the building trade war. The building winds. Millions told to stay indoors as China braces for strong winds. State media has warned that "some people weighing less than 110lbs may be 'easily blown away.'"
If you missed it earlier this week, check out the story of two baseball teams with long losing streaks that were broken during a double-header.
+ Dying US man uses his last months for community service in all 50 states.
+ In a World First, Researchers Mapped Part of a Mouse’s Brain in Incredible Detail. It’s a Leap Forward for Neuroscience.
+ US ballerina Ksenia Karelina reunites with fiancé as she returns from Russian prison.
+ Galapagos tortoises at Philadelphia Zoo become first-time parents at nearly 100. (They'll come to wish they had waited.)
+ On the Road in a Giant Almond.
2025-04-11 02:19:16
We were told that getting tough on illegal immigration meant targeting criminals living in the US. But without due process, we can't be sure who the criminals are. In the small New York village of Sackets Harbor, the issue came to head recently. Sackets Harbor might seem like an unlikely place for fight about the arrest of immigrants. It's the region border czar Tom Homan calls home and a county Trump won by double-digits. But even here, "some Americans see the detention of schoolchildren as a line that should not be crossed." This is the story of three students who were rounded up by ICE and the teachers and town who fought to get them released. It gives new meaning to the adage, it takes a village, and provides a reminder of what people who come together to stand up for what's right can sometimes accomplish. WaPo (Gift Article): Trump border czar’s town stood up for 3 kids detained by ICE — and won.
Timothy Snyder, the author of On Tyranny is a veritable cult hero among the pro-democracy, book-reading crowd. Jason Stanley has built a brand explaining fascism and identifying its warning signs. Both have left Yale and moved to Canada. I've written about it some, but it's been on my mind constantly, and left me wondering where their exodus leaves those who have read, shared, and promoted their work. George Packer in The Atlantic(Gift Article) feels a lot like I do. Be a Patriot. "When I heard the news of the Yale exodus, I wondered if my failure to explore an exit makes me stupid and complacent. I don’t want to think I’m one of the sanguine fools who can’t see the laser pointed at his own head—who doesn’t want to lose his savings and waits to flee until it’s too late. Perhaps I was supposed to applaud the professors’ wisdom and courage in realizing that the time had come to leave. But instead, I felt betrayed ... Snyder’s best-selling pamphlet, On Tyranny, is an instruction manual on how to resist authoritarianism. Lesson 1 warns: 'Do not obey in advance.' It’s hard not to conclude that the Yale professors are doing just that."
+ None of this is to suggest there are not risks associated sticking around. In his latest salvo, Trump ordered an investigation of two first-term administration aides who criticized him. Their offenses include telling the truth about about the 2020 election.
The market seems to have come to terms with the fact that all the tariffs have not been paused and team behind the wildly unclear strategy for those tariffs is still running the show. Hence, today's plunge. There are countless theories as to why Trump retreated from initial tariff proposals. The most likely reason was the action in the bond market. Long story short, investors around the world have started to lose faith in the US. "Normally when investors are this scared they seek safety, and nothing is safer than the dollar and Treasury debt. But despite mounting fear of recession, the usual flight to safety hasn’t materialized. That is for several reasons, some relatively superficial, such as inflation risks, and one more fundamental." WSJ (Gift Article): The Dollar and the Bond Market’s Ominous Message for Trump.
+ Here's the latest: US stocks plunge, dollar tumbles as reality sets back in on Wall Street.
+ "Now, Beijing knows that Trump not only blinked, but he so alienated our allies, so demonstrated that his word cannot be trusted for a second, that many of them may never align with us against China in the same way. They may, instead, see China as a better, more stable long-term partner than us. What a pathetic, shameful performance. Happy Liberation Day." Tom Friedman in NYT (Gift Article): What Trump Just Cost America.
+ Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): This Is Why Dictatorships Fail. "In the past 48 hours, Donald Trump has just given us a pitch-perfect demonstration of why legislatures are necessary, why checks and balances are useful, and why most one-man dictatorships become poor and corrupt. If the Republican Party does not return Congress to the role it is meant to play and the courts don’t constrain the president, this cycle of destruction will continue and everyone on the planet will pay the price."
+ So the GOP saw the warning signals of economic thinking that tanked the world's markets and decided to rethink the budget being pushed by the same team, right? Well, not exactly. House adopts budget blueprint for Trump's agenda after GOP leaders sway holdouts.
"The first problem, she says, is the reduced value placed on recorded music by streaming sites like Spotify, which pays $.003 to $.005 per stream on average ... That leads to the next problem: live music is not making up for the loss in streaming revenue." That has led to what some artists see as a way to make up some of the revenue they're losing in the modern music business landscape. NPR: Why would a musician join OnlyFans? Because making a living is only getting harder. (Now if my wife sees an OnlyFans charge on the credit card bill, she'll know I'm doing whatever I can to support musicians.)
Downunder Mifflin: "Modern paper was invented in China during the Han dynasty about two millennia ago, but centuries passed before the material’s use as bath tissue became commonplace. People would instead clean themselves with whatever they had on hand — corn cobs, leaves, shells, you name it. When paper became more readily available beyond the wealthiest echelons, folks would simply reuse items like newspapers and 'the Sears catalogue, and then the Sears catalogue went glossy and we stopped using that.'" Then came modern toilet paper. Then came the endless quest to improve it. WaPo (Gift Article): The corporate quest to make better toilet paper.
+ Merry Ex-Mas: "U.S. retailers are almost completely reliant on China for Christmas decorations, where they source 87% of such goods — worth roughly $4 billion. Chinese factories are also heavily dependent on the U.S. market, where they sell half of what they make. If Americans want new Christmas decorations this year, they will have to pay a lot more for them — if they can find them on the shelves at all." Has Trump cancelled Christmas? China’s decorations makers report no U.S. orders. (Meanwhile, Santa is being accused of being too woke for letting Rudolph lead his sleigh.)
+ Inside Job: "Senator Adam Schiff on Wednesday called on Congress to investigate whether President Donald Trump engaged in insider trading or market manipulation when he abruptly paused a sweeping set of tariffs, a move that sent stock prices skyrocketing." (It's a safe bet that insiders benefited from the market swings. It's a safer bet that no one will be held to account.)
+ Prisoner Swap: "Russian human rights activists said while living in the US she had made a single transfer of $51on the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 22 February 2022." Woman jailed over $51 donation to Ukraine freed in US-Russia prisoner swap.
+ Unreserved: "Hundreds of reservists and retired officers in Israel’s air force signed a letter on Thursday urging the Israeli government to agree to a deal with Hamas to return hostages, even at the price of stopping the war in Gaza."
+ Mirror Mirror Off the Wall: "The institution forces America to look at its full history. We’re supposed to learn from what we see — not pretend it doesn’t exist." Raj Tawney on the downside of erasing history: The Smithsonian Is Not a ‘Distorter.’ It’s a Mirror.
+ Big Order: How is Tim Cook responding to the potential of an extended trade war with China? Like this: Apple airlifts 600 tons of iPhones.
"Attending the Masters for the first time was a new experience for Thomas Abraham, and it wasn’t just about the golf. The 16-year-old from Houston had the rare opportunity to use a public telephone for the first time." No cellphones are allowed at Augusta. Break out your pocket camera and remember to write down important numbers.
2025-04-10 03:09:13
A twist on the rule of holes goes something like this: If your opponent is in a hole and digging, why would you take away his shovel? As the Trump tariff plot is digging holes in our stock portfolios, it's also grievously damaging America's status as a trusted partner and financial leader around the globe (see the bond market for details). After a series of self-inflicted wounds, an economy that a few months ago was the envy of the world is being turned into a giant meme stock. That's why, although I'm no expert in international economics, I wonder why we'd expect China (the country most likely to fill the economic leadership vacuum) to cave to Trump when Trump's tactics are so harmful to the United States. To really establish fair trade with China, we'd need to work with allies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained: "We can probably reach a deal with our allies. They’ve been good military allies, not perfect economic allies. And then we can approach China as a group." But at this point, one has to wonder, "What allies?" We've deeply offended our closest friends and hit potential negotiating partners with heavy tariffs. Bessent can't even make a prediction about working with allies without offending them in the same sentence. But all that implies there's some sense to be made of this strategy, when there isn't. Basically, the market just wants the craziness to stop. And thus, when Trump announced that there would be a pause on some of the tariffs today, the market surged. I'm as happy as anyone about that. But I worry that the market (like many Americans) is in denial about how dangerous this instability is; when the whims of a guy who just bragged, "I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass" can post on Truth Social and literally move world markets. Not to mention that fact that anyone who knows those posts are coming could make a hell of a lot of money. Money and politics aside, if one were a malignant narcissist, being able to control the fate of the entire world economy would definitely get one off.
+ After tanking the market for a week and backing off today, here's how Scott Bessent described his boss's behavior. "It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment ... This was his strategy all along ... No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump." That sounds like a treasury secretary the world can really trust, eh? (BTW, a president is supposed to create leverage for America, not himself.) Here's the latest from CNN and CNBC. Full disclosure: Everything could have wildly changed between the time I sent this and the time you got it. After all, it did while I was writing it.
"Of all the lawless acts by the Trump administration in its first two and a half months, none are more frightening than its dumping of human beings who have not had their day in court into an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador — and then contending that no federal court has the authority to right these brazen wrongs." Erwin Chemerinsky and Laurence H. Tribe in the NYT (Gift Article): We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid. "There would be nothing to stop the government from jailing its critics in another country and then claiming, as it is now, that the courts have no jurisdiction to remedy the situation. Armed with this power, the government would know that Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the F.B.I. or any federal law enforcement agency could apprehend anyone, ignore the requirements for due process and ship them to El Salvador or any country that would take them. These individuals would have no legal recourse whatsoever from any American court. The administration could create its own gulags with no more judicial review than existed when Stalin did the same thing in the Soviet Union."
+ About 90% of Migrants Deported to El Salvador Had No US Criminal Record.
+ "The detention of Mr. Orellana and other green card holders is the latest sign that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is expanding far beyond people who are in the country illegally." ‘Where’s Alex?’ A Beloved Caregiver Is Swept Up in Trump’s Green Card Crackdown.
+ IRS chief to quit over immigrants’ tax data sharing with ICE. (She'd only been on the job since Feb.)
+ Meanwhile, ICE Chief Suggests Copying Amazon Prime for Trump’s Mass Deportations.
"The Trump administration is freezing $790 million in federal funding to Northwestern University and more than $1 billion in funding to Cornell University, a White House official told CNN." Trump administration freezes $1 billion in funding for Cornell University, $790 million for Northwestern University.
+ Vox: Why aren’t universities using their billion-dollar endowments to fight Trump? "The handful of institutions at the top of the higher education pyramid have to decide, sooner rather than later, whether to use the fortunes they inherited to stand up on behalf of millions of students, faculty, and workers nationwide, and defend the values of intellectual freedom that have produced the greatest higher education system in the world. It may be risky, and expensive, and not what anyone signed up for. But those are the circumstances that require courage most of all."
"The firefighter scooped up the figure slumped on the kitchen floor and dashed for the ambulance waiting on Blake Street. As he moved through the smoky haze, he was struck by a thought that is still with him: It was like nothing was in his arms." A really haunting story from the NYT (Gift Article): He Was Held Captive in His Room for Decades. Then He Set It on Fire.
Hit the Lights: Good news for anyone who planned to spend the afternoon lamenting the corrupt states of leadership in America and Israel: Tom Friedman already did it for you. NYT (Gift Article): Trump and Netanyahu Steer Toward an Ugly World, Together. "Each is steering his nation away from its once universal aspiration to be a 'light unto the nations' toward a narrow, brutish might-equals-right ethnonationalism that is ready to mainstream ethnic cleansing. Each treats his political opposition not as legitimate but as enemies within, and each has filled his cabinet with incompetent hacks, deliberately chosen for loyalty to him instead of the laws of their lands."
+ There's an AP for That: "A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump White House to let Associated Press journalists return to the Oval Office and other spaces immediately to cover news events." (This means the AP can go back to seeing Trump lie in person.)
+ Woken Token: Trump administration fires senior Navy female officer at NATO. She appeared on a 'woke' list. (This is just one example of many, many, many cases where qualified military and national security people are being canned.)
+ Excising Tax: "We know that DOGE is in the process of gutting the IRS. According to internal IRS estimates reviewed by The Washington Post, this internal sabotage is already estimated to have cost the U.S. Treasury more than $500 billion in revenues that otherwise would have been raised by April 15th. But it doesn’t stop at the IRS. DOGE is also in the process of essentially closing down the Tax Division at the Department of Justice."
+ Mars Bar: Think Tesla's sales will hurt Elon Musk? That will seem like a rounding error compared to the SpaceX upside of having his people in the administration. NYT (Gift Article): Mars Is the Priority, Trump’s Pick to Lead NASA Will Say. "As someone who has led two private astronaut flights to orbit, he would, if confirmed, bring to NASA and its $25 billion budget a perspective more in line with newer entrepreneurial aerospace companies like SpaceX."
+ Twinning Streak: "Kristen Baker was the maid of honor at her identical twin sister’s wedding. Seconds after the ceremony ended, she stepped out of her bridesmaid dress and into her own wedding gown." Identical twin brothers just wed identical twin sisters in double nuptials. (I didn't read this article. I'm waiting for the Netflix reality series.)
+ The Tooth Gary: "In the early 1990s, they got a call. “My dad said he was too busy and handed the phone to me.” The caller was a dentist who had the great makeup artist Greg Cannom in his chair. Cannom asked how he might get a set of teeth that would fall out during a restaurant scene in a forthcoming comedy he was working on called Mrs Doubtfire." He made the ‘manky British’ set for Austin Powers, droppable ones for Mrs Doubtfire – and fangs for Tom Cruise. Gary Archer on crafting amazing gnashers for stars.
"Forget top MLB Draft prospects or big name Division I schools: The college baseball game on every fan’s mind on Tuesday was taking place on a small field -- one without lights -- five miles from the George Washington Bridge. Usually the home of Fairleigh Dickinson University, on this day it played host to a doubleheader between two teams whose combined losing streaks had reached 141 games entering the action." And it turned out to be a win-win. The teams split a doubleheader.
2025-04-09 02:00:57
It may finally be time to amend Mr. McGuire's famous advice to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word... microplastics." It turns out microplastics are on everyone's minds these days. And in their minds. How much plastic is in your brain? According to some recent research, about seven grams. That's how much it takes to make a disposable plastic spoon—although, in 2025, it feels a hell of lot more like a fork. "Some of the researchers’ other findings have also prompted widespread concern. In the study, the brains of people with dementia had far more microplastics than the brains of people without it. In papers last year, the researchers showed that microplastics were present in human testes and placentas. Other scientists have also documented them in blood, semen, breast milk and even a baby’s first stool." NYT(Gift Article): What Are Microplastics Doing to Our Bodies? This Lab Is Racing to Find Out. "It’s not yet clear what effect this amount of plastic has on human health, but it’s enough to cause alarm." As Matthew Campen, a toxicologist, explains: "'I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person who’s said: ‘Fantastic! Love to know that there’s all that plastic in my brain.'" (Of course, he hasn't talked to RFK Jr yet...)
"The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory on Monday night, lifting a restraining order that had prevented the mass deportation of migrants to an El Salvador prison under an 18th-century wartime law. By a 5–4 vote on the shadow docket, the justices crushed the migrants’ sweeping class action in D.C. and forced them to proceed with narrower suits through more hostile courts in Texas." Mark Joseph Stern: The Supreme Court’s New 5–4 Bailout for Trump Couldn’t Be More Ominous.
+ "For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand. All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown." WaPo: As Trump cracks down on immigration, U.S. citizens are among those snared.
+ Lawyer for U-M protester (and an American citizen) detained at airport after spring break trip with family.
+ Harvard, UCLA, Stanford among schools across US reporting student visa revocations.
+ US expected a big travel year, but overseas visitors — angered by Trump — are heading elsewhere. (Anger and fear are not great vacation selling points. At this point, most international visitors would feel safer checking into a White Lotus resort.)
For a few hours this morning, the stock market was soaring on the perception that trade deals could be made quickly. That rebound has lost its steam at the moment (in part because of more threats of increased tariffs). But volatility is the name of the game when no one understands the logic behind the moves being made.
+ "The trade war between the world's two biggest economies shows no signs of slowing down - Beijing has vowed to 'fight to the end' hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to nearly double the tariffs on China." (Meanwhile, Apple's stock has fallen so far so fast that Tim Cook might need a refund on his $1m inauguration check to cover living expenses.)
+ Beijing calls Vance 'ignorant' over 'Chinese peasants' remark. (Maybe calling Vance ignorant is a way to find some common ground.)
+ WSJ (Gift Article): Howard Lutnick’s Strategy Flummoxes Business Leaders and White House Aides. "Some executives have come away from meetings with the commerce secretary confused and exasperated." (Confused and exasperated is how I feel on a good day.)
+ In other destabilizing financial news: Trump admin tells prosecutors to ease up on crypto enforcement. (And you can bet your bottom memecoin why...)
AI results are increasingly dominating web search (in the cases when people are still searching and not simply asking ChatGPT). That change will completely remake the internet experience. And that is really bad news for sites that depending on search traffic. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Google AI Search Shift Leaves Website Makers Feeling ‘Betrayed.'
+ This will probably provide little solace to website owners: You Can Now Catch Pokémon on Google.
Throwing Grade Shade: "There was once a time when America’s lowest-performing students were improving just as much as the country’s top students. Despite their low scores, these students at the bottom made slow but steady gains on national tests for much of the 2000s. It was one sign that the U.S. education system was working, perhaps not spectacularly, but at least enough to help struggling students keep pace with the gains of the most privileged and successful. Today, the country’s lowest-scoring students are in free fall." NYT (Gift Article): The Pandemic Is Not the Only Reason U.S. Students Are Losing Ground. (You don't need to have high test scores to understand that this will only increase our already massive income inequality.)
+ Work the Room: "Thousands of working people in New York City now live in shelters, unable to afford apartments despite holding down jobs that pay them $50,000 or more." NYT (Gift Article): They Work All Day and Go Home to Shelters.
+ Hoop Dreams: Florida stuns Houston with late rally to win third men's NCAA basketball championship. In the end, this March had very little madness.
+ Can You Hear Me Now: The Verge: How an unused nuclear power plant became home to a world-class acoustics lab.
+ Bully Pulpit: "Bull riding has been called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports, and the short bursts of gladiator-style peril feel divinely optimized for the attention economy—as evidenced by the short clips on the league’s YouTube channel with titles like 'Godzilla Throws Mason Taylor to the Ground Like a Wet Paper Towel.' The hind hooves of a bull can deliver a force about 30 times as powerful as a straight punch in Olympic boxing, and about 1 in 15 rides ends in injury." GQ: Can Cowboy Fever Make Bull Riding the Next UFC?
I know, I know. So much bad news. So let's end on a positive. Madonna and Elton John make peace after decades-long strained relationship. (What can I say, it's not easy finding a positive these days...)