Village People

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.