“And so the Greeks send me this horse, we’re talking about one of the most beautiful horses you’ve ever seen. So big. So strong. Normally they keep this kind of horse for themselves but they were such big fans they said sir, please take our big wonderful horse we’ll even bring it to your house”

Starting to think that we should sort out a general agreement on trade and tariffs, perhaps housed under some sort of world trade organization. Let's keep the region strong with some kind of of north american free trade agreement. Perhaps a trans pacific partnership could soften China's influence.

As a business, how can you plan or invest anything knowing we have this type of erratic policy?

Market Update

youtu.be/d8K16dt174g?...

NEW ODD LOTS:

@tracyalloway.bsky.social and I talked to Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen about the effects that Trump's tariffs are already having on global trade.

open.spotify.com/episode/27gW...

“I am not willing to go public yet but I will say this: I don’t know if I would be this worried about what will happen to the economy if Bernie fucking Sanders were president,” one big Trump/GOP donor says. “That’s how bad this is…
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Folks, please understand: if there was a single forecast that showed higher gdp because of the tariffs, I’d put it out. But there isn’t one. Not even from the White House.

When national security staff are axed after a fringe influencer whispers in the President’s ear, the rot is no longer creeping—it’s systemic. This isn’t governance. It’s paranoia in power, and the cost is institutional credibility.

Mourning in America

Happy Trump Consumption Tax Day, to those who celebrate.

Pete Buttigieg hit this key question:

"How did the information move from a classified system to an unclassified system?"

"Somebody moved it. And that somebody would appear to be Secretary Hegseth. He needs to explain how he did that and why."

A reminder in dark times: kindness, mercy, decency, and respect towards the least of us enrages Trumpists. It burns them. It’s like a mirror that shows them how they fall short of humanity.

Kindness and decency towards the people Trumpists hate is not just right; it torments Trumpists.

🧵I've posted previously about how institutional capture by disordered discourse works, and I want to highlight this post from DOD Rapid Response to show what it looks like in action, and what it tells us.

It’s a textbook example of Stage 5: Entrenchment & Epistemic Closure.
bsky.app/profile/elio...

🧵 I want to follow up this earlier thread by examining why the USA finds itself in the state it does at the moment; the process of disordered discourse capturing state institutions and how it inevitably results in a slide towards authoritarianism, a process we're seeing unfold before our very eyes.

The problem with our current political chaos is that it leads businesses to compete for carveouts, rather than competing in the market.