Strega

5% have 2/3 of the wealth in the US. They want volatility, they want disruption, they want recessions…huge buying opportunity. The have trillions of dollars of dry powder just waiting…..right now. They will get granny’s farm for pennies on a buck.

When the top 5% has 95%, will they stop then? LOL.

@Jakelafort – Once upon a midnight dreary, when your mind is bright and cheery, I shall wait to hear your musings—ponder well and share them more.

However, I wouldn’t sweat over loss of USAID to American farmers and agricultural research.

Well if I was a “real” farmer I might sweat a little. It is the immediate cut-off of all USAID that is the problem.  There was no sliding scale to zero over a few years to allow contingency plans to be put in place. Given that USAID constituted about 0.…[Read more]

Is Trump a functional illiterate?

@jakelafort – Feel free to add to this post, if you want.

I have recently read both of these books and I would recommend them:

The Knowledge Machine – Michael Strevens. Link.

and

Free Thinking – Simon McCarthy Jones. Link.

Recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have significantly affected American farmers. In January 2025, the Trump administration ordered a near-total freeze on foreign aid, leading to a halt in USAID’s procurement of U.S.-grown crops for international food assistance programs. This abrupt cessation has disrupted a vital…[Read more]

I shall continue to watch Tesla in silence.

Unseen wrote:
Focusing on the economy (“It’s the economy, stupid”) wouldn’t have worked because The Orange One’s attack on the Democrats’ economy was only one of several potent tools he had: immigrants raping and murdering, immigrants bringing in fentanyl, immigrants stealing jobs in the country while Dems were allowing jobs to migrate out…

[Read more]

Focusing on the economy (“It’s the economy, stupid”) wouldn’t have worked because The Orange One’s attack on the Democrats’ economy was only one of several potent tools he had: immigrants raping and murdering, immigrants bringing in fentanyl, immigrants stealing jobs in the country while Dems were allowing jobs to migrate outside the country, Dem…[Read more]

It’s a mistake to think that FDR and JFK fit into the category of Classical Liberalism.

Yes, after 2 seconds thinking about it, I fully agree. Neither were classical liberals in the tradition of Locke or Adam Smith. Both expanded federal power.  FDR and the NEW Deal was to tie down the economy in red tape and JFK  expanded a “Big Brother ” sur…[Read more]

Here is another review of the Sunday book recommendation.

Unseen wrote:
Her pretty face kept her in the news cycle.

It was the sensationalism of the case that kept it in the news cycle, together with her being British, one of our own.  Murder, sex, drugs, pretty girls, Africans, Italians – it had it all.

@ Reg

Yes, the truth is always more complicated than can be summed up in one sentence. All the things you detailed were true, but it was her good looks more than anything else that saved her. Her pretty face kept her in the news cycle.

@Unseen – Yes, a lot more than just the economy.

Project 2025 ‘is the agenda’ for Trump’s second term and they admitted it the day after the election.  The thing with the lies is that there were so many of them and fired from various sources simultaneously. There was too much to unpick. By the time people got over the “Eating the dogs and eating…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The Democrats should have reused the brilliantly simple political messaging strategy that helped Bill Clinton defeat George H.W. Bush in 1992.  James Carville’s famous phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” was a reminder to the Clinton campaign to stay focused on what truly mattered to voters: economic issues. Yes, Har…

[Read more]

On the Nobel prize:

From the NYT:

On Sunday, Mr. Rubio leaned heavily on emotive language to push back against the critics who have since berated the Trump administration for the public display of hostility toward Mr. Zelensky, a wartime president who frames his battle against Russia’s invasion as a bulwark of Europe’s security and freedom. Mr.…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Had she been a black girl or a homely white girl, she’d have been toast.

If she had been Black, she would have been treated worse by the police and the press.  Beyond that, that’s a pretty misogynistic assessment.  What do the Brits think?  We’ve pretty much forgotten about it.  I think it unfolded in a complex way and we follo…[Read more]

@Unseen

The mayor of Perugia in Italy where Meredith Kercher was murdered was annoyed that Knox filmed her “Blue Moon” documentary there. Knox did not bring shame to the town, its own police force did. The mayor was more concerned about the public image of the town being associated with the crime again than with the 16 years Knox had spent cle…[Read more]