The online right is having their are we the baddies moment: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/dissident-right-trump.html
Nathan Cofnas, a right-wing philosophy professor and self-described “race realist” fixated on group differences in I.Q., wrote on X, “All over the world, almost everyone with more than half a brain is looking at the disaster of Trump (along with Putin, Yoon Suk Yeol, et al.) and drawing the very reasonable conclusion that right-wing, anti-woke parties are incapable of effective governance.” (Yoon Suk Yeol is South Korea’s recently impeached president.)
Scott Siskind, who blogs under the pseudonym Scott Alexander, has been an influential figure in Silicon Valley’s revolt against social justice ideology, though he’s never been a Trump supporter. Last week, he asked whether “edgy heterodox centrists” like himself paved the way for Trump by opening the door to once-verboten arguments. In an imaginary Socratic dialogue, he wrote, “We wanted a swift, lean government that stopped strangling innovation and infrastructure. Instead we got chain-saw-style firings, total devastation of state capacity in exactly the way most likely to strangle innovation more than ever, and the worst and dumbest people in the world gloating about how they solved the ‘grift’ of sending lifesaving medications to dying babies......
When liberalism was firmly entrenched, its discontents could treat authoritarian ideas as interesting avant-garde provocations. Authoritarianism in power, however, was always going to be crude and stupid.
Trump’s tariffs have pushed some to the breaking point because they reveal the immediate material cost of that stupidity. The decadent cynics of the new right could dismiss Trump’s lies about the 2020 election as mere hyperbole. It’s harder to be sanguine about a collapse in one’s own net worth and economic prospects. “It kind of made the consequences seem real,” Hanania said of the trade war."
Poe's Law is a harsh mistress: https://bsky.app/profile/virginmedianews.bsky.social/post/3lmrlfegsbo24
A crew of six women, including pop star Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos's fiancé Lauren Sanchez, is set to blast off today on an 11-minute Blue Origin flight.
It marks the first all-female space mission in 60 years — hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in space tourism.
There is no benefit to trying to cozy up to Trump and Co., example one trillion:
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tried to cozy up to Trump over Trump's hatred of congestion pricing. Now he is being investigated by Trump's Attorney for the District of New Jersey regarding immigration: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/nyregion/trump-justice-department-habba-immigration.html
In uncut optimism, the media is reporting this as a defeat for the Trump admin and that they have to do something to get him back. They were also unanimous on due process. That is not nothing.
Of course Dear Leader's Press Secretary is telling everyone that Habeas Corpus is not Due Process
Agreed. They could just be trying to kick the can down the road to avoid the Constitutional Crisis they know is coming. District Courts and Courts of Appeal have ordered deportees returned before and the Government has complied even if it drags its feet. Even after the Supreme Court potentially handed the Trump admin a win on TRO's regarding the Alien Enemies Act, two district courts, including a Trump appointed Judge, ruled against the admin on Alien Enemies Act related litigation.
Still, it is not a total defeat for the opposition to Trump.
The bleak reading of the decision is that the Supreme Court is getting ready to neuter the judiciary and render Marbury v. Madison irrelevant.
In which Trump and the Plutocrats admit to insider trading and market manipulation on the record: https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1910074164272386414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1910074164272386414%7Ctwgr%5E2f3b5dd9db641ec2849ef5f139a7e4e8bbd45f45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dlawyersgunsmoneyblog-comt_i%3D14995520https3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F3Fp3D149955t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F20252F042Fsupreme-court-holds-that-the-district-court-can-order-the-return-of-kilmar-armando-abrego-garcia-to-a-pointt_e%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20pointt_d%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20pointt_t%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20points_o%3Ddescversion%3D89d0561b868ad63ec2711e992e8dc338
The Supreme Court upholds the order to return deportee sent to El Salvador, now we might get the Justice Roberts made his decision, now let him enforce it moment: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-upholds-order-facilitate-return-deportee-sent-el-salvador-error-2025-04-10/
LeeEsq pointed out a while ago that this was going to be there path to removal and it has been around forever but rarely, if ever used, the standard for proving this is essentially because the Secretary of State says so according to LeeEsq.
There is going to need to be some major law overhauling when this is all done
The Democrats are split between Free Trade is good and realizing that the former message of "those jobs are not coming back but we will retrain you to be home health aides" was a loser.
"The fundamental truth of Donald Trump is that he apparently cannot conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game, a competition for dominance. His long history of scams, hostile litigation — not to mention his frequent refusal to pay contractors, lawyers, brokers and other people who were working for him — is evidence enough of the reality that a deal with Trump is less an agreement between equals than an opportunity for Trump to abuse and exploit the other party for his own benefit. For Trump, there is no such thing as a mutually beneficial relationship or a positive-sum outcome. In every interaction, no matter how trivial or insignificant, someone has to win and someone has to lose. And Trump, as we all know, is a winner.
This simple fact of the president’s psychology does more to explain his antipathy to international trade and enthusiasm for tariffs and other trade barriers than any theorizing about his intentions or overall vision. It certainly is not as if he has a considered view of the global economy. It is not even clear that Trump knows what a tariff is."
World ending watch: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/341f67658dddec60977630a73fe1f938908a4d8b20262117db4ef2d04f75ca44.jpg
"Nobody knew...the people I correctly pointed out were crazy turned out to have accurately predicted what was going to happen, which just shows how insane they really were!"-Richard Hanania
There is sometimes a rational basis to be unreasonable and there is nothing wrong with going into some kind of negotiation demanding things you know you will not get or asking for more than is reasonable. But there are limits.
2. Fewer products available. A company called Framework is not ending lower priced laptops to the U.S. anymore because of tariffs. Nintendo has stopped taking pre-orders on the Switch 2 to figure out the tariff regime.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
The online right is having their are we the baddies moment: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/opinion/dissident-right-trump.html
Nathan Cofnas, a right-wing philosophy professor and self-described “race realist” fixated on group differences in I.Q., wrote on X, “All over the world, almost everyone with more than half a brain is looking at the disaster of Trump (along with Putin, Yoon Suk Yeol, et al.) and drawing the very reasonable conclusion that right-wing, anti-woke parties are incapable of effective governance.” (Yoon Suk Yeol is South Korea’s recently impeached president.)
Scott Siskind, who blogs under the pseudonym Scott Alexander, has been an influential figure in Silicon Valley’s revolt against social justice ideology, though he’s never been a Trump supporter. Last week, he asked whether “edgy heterodox centrists” like himself paved the way for Trump by opening the door to once-verboten arguments. In an imaginary Socratic dialogue, he wrote, “We wanted a swift, lean government that stopped strangling innovation and infrastructure. Instead we got chain-saw-style firings, total devastation of state capacity in exactly the way most likely to strangle innovation more than ever, and the worst and dumbest people in the world gloating about how they solved the ‘grift’ of sending lifesaving medications to dying babies......
When liberalism was firmly entrenched, its discontents could treat authoritarian ideas as interesting avant-garde provocations. Authoritarianism in power, however, was always going to be crude and stupid.
Trump’s tariffs have pushed some to the breaking point because they reveal the immediate material cost of that stupidity. The decadent cynics of the new right could dismiss Trump’s lies about the 2020 election as mere hyperbole. It’s harder to be sanguine about a collapse in one’s own net worth and economic prospects. “It kind of made the consequences seem real,” Hanania said of the trade war."
"
Poe's Law is a harsh mistress: https://bsky.app/profile/virginmedianews.bsky.social/post/3lmrlfegsbo24
A crew of six women, including pop star Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos's fiancé Lauren Sanchez, is set to blast off today on an 11-minute Blue Origin flight.
It marks the first all-female space mission in 60 years — hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in space tourism.
"
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:sefgphqp2xqwh2hawaixykwz/post/3lms4dic6mk2l?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com%252F2025%252F04%252Fan-elite-institution-finally-understands-the-shot
Harvard fights back
"
The Bukele presser is going about as horribly as one can imagine
"
He is also almost certainly not going to win.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
There is no benefit to trying to cozy up to Trump and Co., example one trillion:
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tried to cozy up to Trump over Trump's hatred of congestion pricing. Now he is being investigated by Trump's Attorney for the District of New Jersey regarding immigration: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/nyregion/trump-justice-department-habba-immigration.html
"
And he has more available but this was expected.
"
In uncut optimism, the media is reporting this as a defeat for the Trump admin and that they have to do something to get him back. They were also unanimous on due process. That is not nothing.
Of course Dear Leader's Press Secretary is telling everyone that Habeas Corpus is not Due Process
"
Agreed. They could just be trying to kick the can down the road to avoid the Constitutional Crisis they know is coming. District Courts and Courts of Appeal have ordered deportees returned before and the Government has complied even if it drags its feet. Even after the Supreme Court potentially handed the Trump admin a win on TRO's regarding the Alien Enemies Act, two district courts, including a Trump appointed Judge, ruled against the admin on Alien Enemies Act related litigation.
Still, it is not a total defeat for the opposition to Trump.
The bleak reading of the decision is that the Supreme Court is getting ready to neuter the judiciary and render Marbury v. Madison irrelevant.
"
In which Trump and the Plutocrats admit to insider trading and market manipulation on the record: https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1910074164272386414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1910074164272386414%7Ctwgr%5E2f3b5dd9db641ec2849ef5f139a7e4e8bbd45f45%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dlawyersgunsmoneyblog-comt_i%3D14995520https3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F3Fp3D149955t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F20252F042Fsupreme-court-holds-that-the-district-court-can-order-the-return-of-kilmar-armando-abrego-garcia-to-a-pointt_e%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20pointt_d%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20pointt_t%3DSupreme20Court20holds20that20the20District20Court20can20order20the20return20of20Kilmar20Armando20Abrego20Garcia2C20to20a20points_o%3Ddescversion%3D89d0561b868ad63ec2711e992e8dc338
"
The Supreme Court upholds the order to return deportee sent to El Salvador, now we might get the Justice Roberts made his decision, now let him enforce it moment: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-upholds-order-facilitate-return-deportee-sent-el-salvador-error-2025-04-10/
"
LeeEsq pointed out a while ago that this was going to be there path to removal and it has been around forever but rarely, if ever used, the standard for proving this is essentially because the Secretary of State says so according to LeeEsq.
There is going to need to be some major law overhauling when this is all done
"
https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/trump-is-now-mandating-his-cabinetloyalist
Trump makes his cabinet wear pins with his face on them
"
Who likes conspiracy theories?
Bored, decadents.
On “What To Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade War”
Trump blinks except for China
"
The Democrats are split between Free Trade is good and realizing that the former message of "those jobs are not coming back but we will retrain you to be home health aides" was a loser.
Some like Whitmer have parochial interests
"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/opinion/trump-tariffs-rationale-power.html
"The fundamental truth of Donald Trump is that he apparently cannot conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game, a competition for dominance. His long history of scams, hostile litigation — not to mention his frequent refusal to pay contractors, lawyers, brokers and other people who were working for him — is evidence enough of the reality that a deal with Trump is less an agreement between equals than an opportunity for Trump to abuse and exploit the other party for his own benefit. For Trump, there is no such thing as a mutually beneficial relationship or a positive-sum outcome. In every interaction, no matter how trivial or insignificant, someone has to win and someone has to lose. And Trump, as we all know, is a winner.
This simple fact of the president’s psychology does more to explain his antipathy to international trade and enthusiasm for tariffs and other trade barriers than any theorizing about his intentions or overall vision. It certainly is not as if he has a considered view of the global economy. It is not even clear that Trump knows what a tariff is."
"
https://bsky.app/profile/juddlegum.bsky.social/post/3lmf67bbovc2w
If only Senator Kennedy were in a position to do something about his very informed views on why tariffs are bad.
Oh wait, he is. He just lacks a spine.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
Ah yes, the famously biasfree Free Beacon.
"
World ending watch: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/341f67658dddec60977630a73fe1f938908a4d8b20262117db4ef2d04f75ca44.jpg
"Nobody knew...the people I correctly pointed out were crazy turned out to have accurately predicted what was going to happen, which just shows how insane they really were!"-Richard Hanania
On “What To Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade War”
There is sometimes a rational basis to be unreasonable and there is nothing wrong with going into some kind of negotiation demanding things you know you will not get or asking for more than is reasonable. But there are limits.
Trump doesn't understand those limits
"
https://bsky.app/profile/mattmfm.bsky.social/post/3lmcjz76xws2n
Apparently lots of small businesses are leaving product in China because they can't afford the tariffs.
The real havoc to the stock market happens at midnight tonight
"
The tariffs are extremely unpopular and only committed Trumpists and anti-Democrats think otherwise.
"
https://bsky.app/profile/econberger.bsky.social/post/3lmd2yuzrok2p
Trump is stuck in a vision of the past that no one wants
"
1. Higher prices on everything;
2. Fewer products available. A company called Framework is not ending lower priced laptops to the U.S. anymore because of tariffs. Nintendo has stopped taking pre-orders on the Switch 2 to figure out the tariff regime.
3. Recession, Depression, Increased Unemployment, Bankrupted industries
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.