Trump is such a terrible negotiator that if I lived in Alaska I would worry about being sold back to Russia as part of any deal on Ukraine.

Bezos’s WP is promoting “personal liberties” by having Scott Walker, who polarized Wisconsin, lost his governorship, and flamed out before the Iowa caucus, advise Texas on how to sell one of the worst gerrymanders in US history.

Next up: Trump’s flunkies calling his crony capitalism “free markets.”

Swiss Businesses Fear Being ‘Annihilated’ by One of the World’s Highest Tariffs

Trump put a 39% tariff on Switzerland due to their big trade surplus with the US.

In fact, 3/4 of that surplus is for gold mined all over and refined in Switzerland.

Goldfinger had a much better understanding of trade and markets.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/b...

Very excited to share this new tool for teaching the politics of climate change. What are the different *theories of change* that underlie decarbonization efforts and policies? Help your students learn about them. Please share widely. 🌎🔌💡🛢️

If this happens, at a minimum Putin, a war criminal under ICC warrant for abducting Ukrainian kids, gets a meeting with the US president for nothing, ending 3+ years of isolation from Western leaders. But Putin will be hoping for so much more from Trump.

Three fundamental theories in economics are that trade, property rights, and a reliable currency are good for efficiency, investment, and growth.

The US stock market has not yet priced in how badly Trump is trashing trade,the rule of law, and the dollar. Eventually it will.

I thought everyone could find the Kursk?

Republicans have already gerrymandered so much that they hold 19 extra House seats that would be competitive with fair maps. If TX starts a gerrymander war and NY, CA, NJ, and IL retaliate, Republicans lose. They have fewer places left to gerrymander.

The comments on this post are . . . Not happy.

Did not read them all but read a lot and did not see a single positive response. Admittedly a sample bias but European media today could be interesting.

Of course Colbert was cancelled for financial reasons. If Paramount does not kiss Trump’s ring he won’t let their merger go through.

It is emblematic of the Democrats weak messaging that they haven’t coined a term for this turd.

Let’s help them out:

Billionaire bros bill?

Billionaire buddies bill?

Butt ugly billionaires bill?

Other suggestions welcome

China's Clean Energy Boom Could Win the Race to Power the Future Beijing is selling clean energy to the world, Washington is pushing oil and gas. Both are driven by national security.

The US is losing the competition with China over the clean energy markets of the future. Trump’s bill will accelerate this by raising interest rates, destroying the dollar, and putting the brakes on clean energy in the US.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Excellent visual tour through NATO's Eastern Flank countries and what they are doing to prepare for the very real threat Russian aggression poses.

Is Europe prepared for war? ig.ft.com/russia-easte... via @financialtimes.com

Stunning piece in the NYT showing how the US and China's embrace of fossil fuels and cleantech respectively suggest converging views on global domination

Phenomenal visuals in there too - check out these two charts

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Can you imagine the sheer cruelty of looking at America right now and saying we should raise $1.2 billion by raising taxes 27% on people making under $15,000 a year — so that we can cut the taxes of people making over a million by a token 3 percent?! The cruelty astounds.

Opinion | How Awful Is the Republican Megabill? Here Are Four of the Worst Parts.

Analysis of how Trump’s tax bill combines the worst of his 2017 tax cuts for the rich with his failed attempt to repeal Obamacare.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/o...

Thou shalt call it the Twelve Day War. No more. No less. Twelve shalt be the number of the war, and the number of the war shalt be twelve. Thou shalt worship it as twice as exalted as the Six Day War. Thirteen days shalt thou not call it, as that is already taken.

Goldfinger: I plan to destroy Fort Knox with a nuclear weapon, and gold will go up to $3500 an ounce.

Bond: Why don’t you just convince the President to start a war with Iran and put tariffs on everyone else? Same result.

G:

B:

G: This mofo is crazy let’s laser him in half.

Good point and a key finding of the US strategic bombing study after WWII: Germany was better able to reconstitute capabilities than we had thought

What will be the effect on nuclear proliferation globally? (even more incentives to quickly and secretly get N weapons as US is an unpredictable partner)

What will happen with world oil markets? (price will be up for months = Putin happy)

What will happen with stock markets? (even more volatility after drop on Monday)

Will the US or Israel target Iran’s political leaders? (Yes)

Will Iran respond asymmetrically, including terror attacks outside the ME (yes)

Will the Iranian regime collapse (not in the next month)

Meh.

Putin-Prigozhin did it better.

Inside the Creepy, Surprisingly Routine Business of Animal Cloning “Really and truly, a horse can be alive forever. Forever and ever.”

Wild kicker at the end of this Atlantic article on cloning:

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Starting to think Musk named his kid X so that when he does weird stuff like asking X to punch him in the face it will be hard to find all the commentary by googling “Musk X”

Trump to Pardon Reality-Show Couple Convicted of $36 Million Fraud

It’s like Dr. Evil pardoned Mini-Me.

Between this and the trophy wife comments Trump is projecting even more than usual.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/u...

Set aside for a minute the corruption that Trump milks for hundreds of millions: the plane, the memecoin, the family deals.

The really amazing thing is that with all these cash machines, he still bothers to scam on the trinkets: the bibles, the butt-ugly shoes.

No grift too small for this man.

Fourteen years in, Vance discovers and completely misconstrues the replication crisis, trying to use it as a cudgel in Trump’s jihad against any science that disagrees with him. Meanwhile, RFK. Welcome to Lysenkoism 2.0

Opinion | From the Creator of ‘Succession,’ a Delicious Satire of the Tech Right

Only one thing missing from this excellent @michellegoldberg.bsky.social review: a reference to Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead, the book that Republicans and tech bros read in high school for the bad sex and then fetishized for the bad politics.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/o...

Opinion | Liz Truss: Elites killed my pro-growth agenda. Trump can’t let them stop his. The White House’s proposed tax cuts, tariffs and spending reforms are showing the West the way forward.

If you didn’t already know why the lettuce won, now you know.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...