https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/us/politics/trump-letter-ty-cobb.html
No F* Kings.
Author Archives: jgordon
K interviews Nathan Tankus: The world of finance under Musk-Trump attack.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/nathan-tankus-part-ii
Our civilization, and the world of money that runs it, is insanely complex. Musk has delusions of omnipotence and Trump is deeply weird — and both are dumping garbage into poorly understood and very stressed mechanisms. Don’t assume the bond market will save us.
You need to join a Tesla Takedown.
Lifetime prevalence of “psychosis”: white/asian 9.7%, Black/Latino 14%”
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1280253/full
“individuals of recent African or Afro-Caribbean descent are more susceptible to experiencing psychosis … Black and Hispanic participants in this study had lower overall rates of mental illness.”
I came across this in a “Harper’s Index” pop-sci thing and didn’t believe it. Turns out this is a consistent worldwide finding, prev of schizophrenia diagnosis 2 to 4 times! higher. Likely a mix of cultural norms, some substance effects, and how people label their own mental states. There is keen interest in environmental stress effects. (I suspect white/asian are better able to deny/ignore delusional states.)
“Trump is openly defying the courts, and we believe we are firmly in a constitutional crisis”
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index-b23
Third time lucky.
The post-American world: it can be done.
https://gwynnedyer.com/2025/trump-a-window-of-opportunity/
Perhaps a better world. One day America might apply to join.
TIdBITS answer engine review; “Perplexity: For most people, I recommend Perplexity. Its success rate is high, and you can use it for free”
https://tidbits.com/2025/04/17/ai-answer-engines-are-worth-trying/
I forgot Perplexity could be used for free. I pay and get engine options, etc.
“Anyone who has read the Federalist Papers … knows that somewhere between and third and a half of the essays are very specifically about Donald Trump”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/scotus-can-let-the-president-break-the-law-they-cant-change-it
America has the right, and the power, to end its democracy. All it takes is to do nothing.
Establishment conservative David Brooks: “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/trump-harvard-law-firms.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
“Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
Might cause some on Wall Street to worry.
Bike helmets in the Netherlands: “nearly two-thirds of cyclist road deaths were attributed to head injuries”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/world/europe/bicycles-helmets-dutch.html
We have data on death, but brain injury is far more likely. Basically bicycling has significant injury risks, some can be mitigated. Hair is a big issue everywhere, esp with cultures, genders and people for who artful hair is important.
The Chinese Century: “Perhaps the U.S. efflorescence was a very rare and special thing, whose like we will not soon see again.”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/will-this-be-the-chinese-century
America had advanced heart disease and didn’t know it.
Trump debt default pending: “Mar a Lago accord” … forced conversion of short-term Treasuries into long-term bonds.“
GLP-1 pill is small molecule that binds to peptide site: “Researchers at Chugai Pharmaceutical Company, a Japanese company, figured out a way, licensing their drug to Lilly in 2018.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/health/pill-glp-1-eli-lilly.html
Not yet approved though looks good. Other oral med did not get traction though. Side effects?
PowerPhotos 3.0 is out.
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/comments/powerphotos_3.0_released
I’ll wait 2-3m. 50% discount for v2 users.
“if Trump actually does have the ability to arbitrarily send any American to an overseas prison with zero due process … we do, in fact, live in a dictatorship”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-authoritarian-takeover-attempt
Speaker for the technocracy concedes the time has come. What will the technocracy do?
Exploring latent space: “deep neural networks that allow language models to continue thinking in mathematical spaces before producing any text”
AI latent spaces are presumably unique, so they will need to develop an efficient language for inter-AI communication.
I hope they call it Marain.
Homo naledi remains deep in an obscure cave system: “What today’s cavers can do is not a good guide to what a smaller species, better adapted and practiced at climbing, might have done.”
https://johnhawks.net/weblog/how-homo-naledi-got-into-the-dinaledi-chamber/
One may speculate that for them it was a very secure place to visit or live in.
There are probably other similar spaces we would need to explore via bots.
“Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-13-2025
Move over Nazi, MAGA is here.
“Bukele has been offering to hold U.S. citizens”
Gotta learn more Spanish.
“Once you give up the idea that we are all equal before the law and have the right to due process, you have given up the whole game.
“Trump bragging to NASCAR drivers visiting the White House that investor Charles Schwab made $2.5 billion on Wednesday”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-12-2025
Insider trading has been a Congress crime for years but now it’s next level.
“investing in bribes for the ruling family clearly yields excellent returns”
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-trump-tariffs-just-got-even-worse
MASC: “Make America a Shithole Country”
Senators have been a good investment for decades. Trump just kicked it to standard authoritarian mode.
Anti-corruption is the Dem platform I like.
“have a clinical definition of A.D.H.D. that is increasingly unanchored from what we’re finding in our science”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/magazine/adhd-medication-treatment-research.html
All psych / MH disorders have same problem: the clinical descriptions are obsolete AND everyone wants a label. Autism is the worst.
DOGE scam: “One of the group’s largest claims … involves canceling a contract that did not exist”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/us/politics/doge-contracts-savings.html
“the contract … was actually canceled when Joseph R. Biden Jr. was president. The third-largest savings that the group claims comes from a canceled grant to a vaccine nonprofit … it had actually been paid in full, so the savings was $0”
DOGE itself is fraud and abuse. Musk is a con man. Join a Tesla Takedown.
Neutrinos mass at most a millionth of electron mass.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/science/neutrinos-mass-physics.html
New precision. We know non-zero. Key to moving beyond standard model
90s Globalization (China Shock): “Standard economic theory held that the people and places hit by those losses should have adapted relatively quickly.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/business/economy/tariffs-trump-china-shock.html
THIS! One of my pet theories is that 1990-2020 globalization and IT exceeded a speed limit — a limit on how quickly a socioeconomic system can adapt.
And our society crashed and burned.
“while rewarding people for having more kids is of limited use, punishing them for not having kids may be a lot more effective” 🆓
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/at-least-five-interesting-things-9bb
Great research on Vietnam draft and parental exemption.
Dollar falling: “bunch of investors are selling large amounts of U.S. bonds and other assets”
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/this-is-called-capital-flight
They know Trump will out capital flight controls in place. Run while you can.
“When every copy of Windows requires that you have a Microsoft account, the potential for a malicious US to cause tech chaos for the rest of the world is huge.”
https://www.ianbetteridge.com/ten-blue-links-though-cowards-flinch-and-traitors-sneer-edition/
So many old bonds must be broken. Because Americans became decadent and the GOP became corrupt.
“Investigative Case Management (ICM) … by Peter Thiel’s … Palantir, which in 2022 signed a $95.9 million contract with the government to develop ICM”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-11-2025
When you see the name Palantir know that it is bad. A database that of those who might be difficult. I want to see my entry.
“April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act”
“Trump is too old; these tariffs are proof that he’s lost his mind; he’s hurting America badly; dementia runs in his family.”
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/11/china-calls-trump-a-joke
The GOP is the dumbest political party in the history of democracy.
Yarvin: “like listening to a stoned, first-year MBA student who read his father’s outdated history books when he was a teenager and half-remembers them”
https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/am-i-supposed-to-take-curtis-yarvin
I liked the comparison to merely tedious dimwits like Andreesen.
While Trump nursed his bone spurs Xi was foraging: “The seven tough years I spent living and working in the countryside were a great test”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/business/us-china-tariffs-trump-xi.html
This trade war is gonna humiliate Trump.
“If Mr. Trump aspires for absolute power like Mr. Xi, he has a long way to go.”
Turkish student abducted by ICE after visa revoked for editorial.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/04/11/ozturk-tufts-student-ice/
ICE gets the people too dumb to do regular police work.
AP news free to 50 non-profits in trial: “the AP Fund for Journalism and the Google News Initiative.”
https://www.minnpost.com/inside-minnpost/2025/04/minnpost-to-join-aps-local-newsroom-pilot/
I am curious how this goes and how it impacts paywalls.
“Rand Paul (R-KY) told the Senate yesterday: “I don’t care if the president is a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t want to live under emergency rule.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-8-2025
Rand is a bad person but it appears he does have a spine.
Mouse Brain Map start: “Finding wiring rules is a win. The brain is a lot less messy than people thought”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/science/neuroscience-brain-mice-map.html
1 mm sq, 200,000 cells, 523 million connections, 1.6 PB.
David Brooks admits he got it badly wrong: “To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful.”
Brooks rarely says anything that is not annoying but I give credit for admitting error.
“Trump … Morality is for suckers. The strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must.”
“… birds and mammals did not inherit the neural pathways that generate intelligence from a common ancestor, but rather evolved them independently”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/intelligence-evolved-at-least-twice-in-vertebrate-animals-20250407/
Bird brains are more space efficient.
“circuits that composed the mammalian neocortex and the avian DVR developed at different times, in different orders and in different regions of the brain.”
The base neuron structures seem same. Implications for artificial minds.
“Colossal scientists deciphered the dire wolf genome, rewrote the genetic code of the common gray wolf to match it, and, using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers…”
https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/
“Creating the dire wolves called for making just 20 edits in 14 genes in the common gray wolf … white coat, larger size, more powerful shoulders, wider head, larger teeth and jaws, more-muscular legs, and characteristic vocalizations, especially howling and whining.”
“elephant genes will simply be rewritten to match the mammoth”
macOS: “space occupied on disk for a restored volume can be substantially greater than the original or its backup”
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/04/07/how-robust-are-apfs-clone-and-sparse-files/
Clone files in TM become separate files on restore.
“network transfers currently appear to explode sparse files to full size prior to transfer”
“Chinese Academy of Social Sciences announced that it was shutting down the center where Mr. He worked”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/world/asia/china-trade-war-tariffs.html
A small detail in article about China tariff response, but it shows Xi and Trump use same methods to crush dissent.
“Kennedy this afternoon conceded on X that “[t]he most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-6-2025-sunday
Antivaxx community knows RFK must lie now to advance the future agenda. Technically he did not say the MMR vaccine was better than measles …
Since 2013 bottom 25% students doing worse, accelerated by COVID
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/low-performing-students-reasons.html
“[bottom tier] Adults have also been struggling with literacy since 2012 …”
I believe it is the tech, especially smartphone. The constant distraction, but also the difficulty the bottom quartile has working with the tech that schools require them to use. #massdisability
Home contract work industry never recovered from the Great Recession: subcontracting to avoid regulation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/magazine/contractors-construction-real-estate.html
Despite breaking lots of laws the margins are still too small. The article doesn’t explain why — presumably it is Baumol’s Cost Disease. Productivity has not changed in 50-100 years.
Meanwhile in China: vast product production.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/business/china-manufacturing-exports-trump-tariffs.html
“China is using more factory robots than the rest of the world combined …. factory output is bigger than the combined manufacturing of the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain.”
But
“housing market crash since 2021 has wiped out much of the savings of the middle class and ruined many wealthy families.”
How Waltz added Goldberg to the Signal breach: “he number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an exist
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/signal-group-chat-leak-how-it-happened
So funny. Done in by Apple being helpful. I bet that mistake happens fairly often.
Also, of course, why there are processes and tools around secure technologies to prevent errors like this.
This gets to the root of our true gov problems: “White House had authorized the use of Signal, largely because there is no alternative platform to text in real time across different agencies”
A pragmatic economist reviews the contradictions of Trump’s assault on world trade
“While that tariff will hit every container of unprocessed products clearing customs, trucking, processing, warehousing and retailers’ costs here need not change.”
So a 10% tariff, even if borne entirely by Americans, may be significantly less than a 10% price increase. Good stuff in here.
“Given years to adjust to the new tariffs, seasonal vegetable production and canning could again be important in these mid-Atlantic states, although many farm fields have become suburbs.”
Sequoia 15.4 is a big release with very little documentation of changes.
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/04/06/last-week-on-my-mac-sequoia-spring/
I’m waiting a few weeks on this one. With this many undocumented changes a 15.4.1 can’t be far away. Many changes, however, are more about preparing for macOS 16.
Canada gov funded billboards remind US residents that tariffs are a tax.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/06/us/canada-tariffs-billboards-pittsburgh-pennsylvania.html
“billboards aren’t paid for by an industry trade group or a political action committee, but rather by the sovereign (for now) government of Canada, a point that is noted in the not-so-fine print.”
I loved the “for now” there.
“He ain’t built shit,” Musk said of Navarro.”
Rick Steves cheerful travelogue style one hour intro to fascism in 20th century Europe.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/fascism
Steves is best known for his chipper and very efficient guided tours of European museums and destinations. His voice guided my daughter and I through the Vatican museum in about 3 hours(!).
He applies this method to a MAGA-inspired tour of fascism. It’s engaging, brilliant, and wicked.
“When we wrote our book on administrative burdens, we pointed to Social Security as a model to emulate”
https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/as-savings-crater-social-security
“SSA said that 40 percent of direct deposit fraud occurred via calls to the agency. That is wholly different, and massively less, than 40 percent of calls being fraudulent.”
The way to break social security is to degrade services. As Musk is doing. (Caveat: SSA has pretty bad software. It could be improved with time, money, and thought.)