It’s probably a bad sign for the economy that next season’s White Lotus is going to be filmed at a Motel 6. The tariff-induced market mayhem has entered its second week, causing many of us to lose our shirts (and our lunch). I've got an old Cal Bear cheer stuck in my head because it seems to perfect capture this market: You know it, you tell the story, you tell the whole damn world this is bear territory. Maybe this association with Cal Berkeley will convince Trump to back off from the twisted math and sham theories that have driven his current efforts, because the collapse of world markets doesn't seem to be doing the trick. In retrospect, I wish I had invested all my money in Imodium futures.
2All Hands Off DeckIf you looked at the headlines today or watched cable news over the weekend, you may not have noticed the massive turnouts at more than 1200 protests across the globe. As Margaret Sullivan explains, they were big protests — but not big news. But I don't mind digging a bit... 3Gone, Wrong"President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily halt a judge's order requiring his administration to return by the end of the day a Salvadoran man who the government has acknowledged was erroneously deported to El Salvador." And here's what the White House is arguing: "The United States does not control the sovereign nation of El Salvador, nor can it compel El Salvador to follow a federal judge's bidding." In other words, once someone is sent to a foreign prison, it's too late for a US judge to intervene. What makes anyone think that logic couldn't apply to anyone the administration chooses to target? 4This is Not Your Father's Authoritarianism...... but he'd recognize it. In 2015, my dad (who lost his entire family in the Holocaust before joining the Partisans and spending years fighting the Nazis) said of Trump's speeches. "You know, they remind me of Hitler's early speeches when I vas a kid. Everyone laughed at those speeches, too." Over the next few years, he went on to accurately predict just about all of Trump's moves, including the efforts to steal the 2020 election. He knew what authoritarianism looks like because he'd seen it before. Those voices are becoming fewer and fainter as the years pass. I'd argue that's directly related the rise of authoritarianism and increased antisemitism we're seeing worldwide. That's not exactly what Taffy Brodesser-Akner's piece in NYT Mag (Gift Article) is about. It's about a lot of things. But for me it's a story about that and an explanation about why I'm still passing along my dad's warnings. This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write. "All the Holocaust survivors were dying, and at home in New York, spray-painted swastikas had been showing up all over town, and my nephews had stopped wearing their yarmulkes. Yes, all the Holocaust survivors were dying, and we were locked in debates over whether a salute given by a newly installed government official was a Nazi dog-whistle or a Nazi Nazi-whistle or maybe just an awkward wave or a weird shout-out to his buds. What would become of stories like Mr. Lindenblatt’s if the generation of mine that was supposed to inherit them had taken the privilege that came with another generation’s survival and decided not to listen? What would happen to these stories when there was no one left to tell them?" 5Extra, ExtraFast and Furious: "For decades, the world’s largest car factory was Volkswagen’s complex in Wolfsburg, Germany. But BYD, the Chinese electric carmaker, is building two factories in China, each capable of producing twice as many cars as Wolfsburg." NYT (Gift Article): ‘The Tsunami Is Coming’: China’s Global Exports Are Just Getting Started. (Causing a tariff-induced global recession isn't the answer. But China's economic might is a big story.) 6Bottom of the News"Accidentally boarding a boat packed with beer-swilling football fans would be some people’s idea of hell. But Evan Johnston, a 21-year-old student from Arizona, said he 'had a blast' after inadvertently joining a boat trip chartered by 150 Southend United supporters before their National League game at Sutton United on Saturday." American student becomes Southend fan after boarding wrong boat.
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