https://www.umnews.org/en/news/building-peace-in-a-dangerously-polarized-us
Really great summary of the Peace Conference I attended, with this excellent paragraph by United Methodist News:
«Christ demonstrated, the bishop stressed, that peacemaking does not mean keeping silent or accommodating injustice.»
(Bunch of other good stuff in that article, too.)
«“Higher-margin and more technical goods, such as electronics, machinery, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals cannot easily move sourcing, as setting up highly technical manufacturing takes time and considerable capital,” Murphy said.»
#kakistocracy
https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/12/pre-authorization/#is-not-a-guarantee-of-payment
«The theory that monopolies will defend us from other monopolies is a disastrous example of “the old lady who swallowed a fly” strategy. For the strategy to work, everyone has to be a monopolist, otherwise they’ll get steamrollered – on their wages, their care, or their compensation.
And of course, patients don’t get to merge to monopoly (that’s what governments are for, and we know how Blue Cross feels about single payer care). Workers don’t get to merge to monopoly either (that’s what unions are for, and no one hates a union more than a health care monopolist).
Blue Cross’s position – the position of the entire for-profit health industry – is that they should be able to grow as large as they can, at the expense of us, the patients. In other words, they are economic tumors – so no wonder they’re on the side of breast cancer.»
Seems like generally good advice.
Are we back?
Another article on bonds, if you feel like a longish read:
«Yet the underlying problem will remain: The process of upending the global-trading system, which escalated again Friday, is making investors everywhere less confident in holding U.S. financial assets. The ultimate outlet for this is the dollar, which keeps plummeting against major developed currencies, and may have much lower to go.»
«Among the possible knock-on effects is a big hit to ordinary Americans in the form of higher interest rates on mortgages, car financing and other loans.
“As yields move higher, you’ll see your borrowing rates move higher, too,” said Brian Rehling, head of fixed income strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “And every corporation uses these funding markets. If they get more expensive, they’re going to have to pass along those costs customers or cut costs by cutting jobs.”»
I have no doubt this was not a surprise to her.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/megyn-kelly-shocked-young-gop-men
«“That was my goal in helping him, especially with women. I wanted to look them in the eyes, figuratively, and say: Trust me. You know I’m pro-woman, and you know I’ve expressed doubts about him in the past, about some of the choices he’s made when it came to dealing with women, but there is no other choice for women in this election,” Kelly explained.
There was, of course, another choice for women, but let’s not get too off track here.»
Also, yeesh, that picture at the top. Did somebody run it through AI, or was she just that airbrushed?
https://www.natesilver.net/p/wall-street-thinks-trumps-tariffs
«In percentage terms — which is the better way to look at this — the drop in the markets wasn‘t quite so bad: a mere 3.98 percentage point loss in the Dow on Thursday, and 4.84 points in the broader S&P 500. Still, even though Trump had announced “Liberation Day” in advance, Wall Street has persistently failed to take Trump’s tariff threats seriously enough: Thursday’s declines were on top of the downward adjustments stocks already made after the Canada-Mexico tariffs, the auto tariffs Trump announced last week, and whatever expectations for “Liberation Day” were already priced into the market.»
…
«Trump-supporting sycophants in Silicon Valley — I’m sorry to use such invective; it’s really not my style, but I don’t think a softer term is precise enough — are either lying to you or lying to themselves about this. Here’s Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, which was once one of the most prestigious VC firms in the Valley but whose reputation has suffered after investments in Sam Bankman-Fried and other miscalculations:
[something about stock market not revealing truth about economy.]
OK, Shaun, did you actually look at stocks? Which ones suffered the biggest losses? Because I did. And they’re largely consumer staples from the lower-middlebrow on up, or cyclical purchases — like autos and air travel — that Americans consume more of when they think good times are ahead and pull back from when they’re in the brace position preparing for a recession.»
…
«And if Wall Street is right and we get to the point where Americans are stocking up on booze and cigarettes but avoiding buying new toys or taking their kids to Six Flags — and don’t even dream of upgrading their cars or their homes — and all of this is because of some back-office employee who used ChatGPT to upend the global trade system … look I don’t know what the bottom is in Trump’s approval ratings. But it will be tested in a way it probably never was during the first term. There’s no constituency for this, and the excuses you’re seeing from Silicon Valley are transparent cope. Trump just basically has to hope that Wall Street is wrong, or that the economy, which was pretty good when he took office, has enough gas in the tank to ride it out.»
Angry goose: and why was the economy so great?
Here, Read This 