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.

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

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

This is true but it should also be noted that the Parliamentarian system provides a release valve for poor leaders. I don't think it is fool proof if a plurality of voters want authoritarianism but release valves and being able to kick out the PM from within are important.

Noble and public spirited is giving them too much credit.

They have a base that lionizes things like factory work and coal mining because it is “tough” and “manly” work done by real, tough men (TM). This is a base that doesn’t want retraining to careers that they think code as feminine like being a nurse or home health aide

US Applicant week at the University of British Columbia:

From April 14-18, select UBC graduate programs at UBC Vancouver will re-open their applications for US citizens to be considered for September 2025 or January 2026 entry - they are ready to provide quick admissions decisions for these applicants. If you are a prospective graduate student from the United States considering Canada for graduate school – now is the time.

Wall Street deluded itself about Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/opinion/trump-stock-market-wall-street.html

"People in finance, said Berezin, are more likely to be punished for being too cautious and pessimistic than for being too hopeful and aggressive. Last year, for instance, a famed strategist named Marko Kolanovic left JPMorgan Chase abruptly when his gloomy predictions about 2023 and 2024 turned out to be wrong, or least premature. Mike Wilson, also known for his bearishness, stepped down from his post as chair of Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee, though he stayed with the company. “You don’t get fired for being bullish, but you do get fired for being bearish on Wall Street,” said Berezin.....

Some investors also felt a cultural affinity with the new administration that further clouded their judgment. When wokeness was ascendant, plenty of people in tech and finance quietly seethed at being guilt-tripped and forced to feign concern about social justice. “When the opportunity came to jettison all that, they were happy to do it,” said Berezin. “And Trump enabled them to do it.”

Trump threatens more tariffs on China: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/07/business/trump-tariffs-stock-market

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/417e58aa2d61f2e01a40847ad106f08f4d61361cf51ae8658e6ca910ea1dcbbc.jpg

Today in the Stupid, It Burns: Trump voter thinks tariffs will lead to universal health care

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/04/el-salvador-deportation-ruling-trump-administration-00272872

Judge orders DOJ to bring back the illegally deported man from El Salvador by Monday evening

Rats fleeing a sinking ship watch: https://www.rawstory.com/bessent-trump-tariffs/

Newsom announces California is going to seek its own exemptions to Tariffs:

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/04/newsom-california-tariffs-trump-trade-war

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dwaduijo6ngdgzmir5vovzrh/post/3llynh6uoyk2z?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com%252F2025%252F04%252Fmy-date-with-ted-bundy-is-not-going-as-well-as-i-had-every-reason-to-expect-it-would

Tech and Finance leaders are apparently going to go to Mar-A-Lago to try and read Trump the riot act and will get pushed under the buss.

Fox News doing all it can to avoid talking about Trump tanking the economy and creating the Monkey Paw version of ending Pax Americana: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe5875e3656203a9a66acf030dd2eafc2c6a84515b5de1a77fd8d5494c71fa0d.png

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Free Trader: https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/franklin-d-roosevelt-free-trader

YOU CANT USE RATIONAL THOUGHTS WHEN ANALYZING TRUMP’S ACTIONS. THERE ARE NO PLANS. THERE JUST THE RAGES AND OBSESSIONS OF AN OLD AND VERY STUPID MAN.

Any time someone tries to analyze Trump’s actions rationally, I imagine their neurons are saying raise the cognitive defense shields, raise the cognitive defense shields!!

Embrace the madness

Ok, so I am not an administration apologist...

Narrator: He is an administration apologist

You can't use normal political thinking with Trump or anyone around him. That is a big part of the reason we are in this mess. You have to take them seriously and literally and too many people who refused to do so, even people who hate Trump and voted for Harris.