https://www.ft.com/content/7fd4dffc-8adf-4ad8-9fba-333e1ced991d?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Why is my country so despicable?
(pay walled, but I stopped at the headline anyway.)
A piece by the WSJ’s editorial board. I’m not normally a fan of WSJ opinion pieces, since they’re usually garbage, but…
«Michigan families have paid $27.2 billion in tariff-driven costs since January 2025, according to the business outfit Michigan Smart Trade Alliance. That’s roughly $6,658 per household.
The Anderson Economic Group estimated the auto tariffs on Canada and Mexico alone last year totaled approximately $1,600 for every vehicle assembled in the U.S. That doesn’t include tariffs on steel and aluminum. The border taxes are shrinking the margins of U.S. auto makers, which means smaller profit-sharing bonuses for workers.
General Motors says it expects a tariff cost hit of between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion this year. That could mean $3,500 less in bonuses for workers.»
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/mike-rogers-michigan-tariffs-canada-donald-trump-6b3d2bd8
Ten cents in 1930 is two dollars today.
https://newrepublic.com/article/216138/to-do-list-democrats-take-house
Interesting. From an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/hannah-jones-school-choice-response/688758/
«Segregation in schools is largely driven by segregation in neighborhoods, a process that cannot be reversed by the actions of a single pioneering family.»
Things This White Person Is Only Belatedly Becoming Aware Of, #332: https://www.fundforreparationsnow.org/
(Also https://surj.org/)
«DSA’s successes have also been concentrated in deep-blue, urban areas, where winning the Democratic nomination is winning the seat. Most Democratic politicians and voters don’t come from those places, and they’re far less likely to fall for DSA’s pitch – as Francesca Hong’s defeat in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary suggests.
A better way to think about DSA isn’t as a hostile takeover, but as the vanguard of a radicalized professional class. It’s a continuation of a trend already reshaping the Democratic Party: professionals increasingly run it, and those same professionals have grown more radical, especially in the Trump era.
So when 66% of Democrats say they view socialism favorably, versus just 42% for capitalism, that doesn’t mean two-thirds of Democrats are about to join DSA, or that they even agree on what “socialism” means. It means professionals, radicalized by their opposition to President Donald Trump, are picking the brand that signals maximum opposition. That radicalization is fertile ground for DSA recruiting, even if most people professing a liking for socialism just mean something vague, like “be kind” or “government should do more.”
But Democrats warming to socialism isn’t shared by the country as a whole, especially the working class. Only 39% of Americans views socialism positively, according to Gallup. YouGov has the share at just 31%. In a June Economist/YouGov poll, just 29% of Americans said they’d ever consider voting for a self-identified democratic socialist. Among those without a college degree, just 23% said they’d ever consider voting for a democratic socialist; among the college-educated, 40% would consider it.
A July Washington Post/Ipsos poll found similar results: Americans rejected the idea of a democratic socialist presidential candidate by 16 percentage points. Among those with just a high school degree, the rejection widened to 28 percentage points. Once again, the college-educated were far more receptive, splitting roughly down the middle.»
I just happen to be in the Nairobi airport and I heard an announcement in what sounded to my uneducated ears as pretty decent Chinese. Which means somebody has been studying, I think, unless they just hired a Chinese person, for reasons.
The times are changing, y’all.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-arch-arlington-cemetery-lincoln-memorial
What to do with the Arc de Trump:
It occurs to me that one of the things keeping my mind sharp is constantly figuring how to Do Stuff on the web, so… never stop, FireFox. Keep moving shit around, including different arrangements as I move from phone to tablet to PC.
