The Long Defeat

"Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Vox Populi, Vox Humbug. psalm 37.

[The Long Defeat @DefeatLong]

The world has survived error in ideas and confusion before. And men have grown in soul and safety because some groups of them have stood solid. They stood fast not because they knew the solutions to all the confusions, not even because they had the power to find the solution.

[Tom Hoefling @TomHoefling]

"The multitudes remained plunged in ignorance of the simplest economic facts, and their leaders, seeking their votes, did not dare to undeceive them."
-- Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

[Old Canada Series @oldcanadaseries]

US president, Ronald Reagan, and Canadian Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, in 1988. Later that year, Reagan said: “Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogs who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends—weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world—all while cynically waving the American flag."

[Sonny Bunch @SonnyBunch]

wat

[Barred and Bearded @RileeDHarrison]

People think lawyers spend all day arguing in court. I spent 25 minutes this morning trying to turn a PDF into a Word document.

[Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff]

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the free market is mispricing long-term bond yields. So he wants to use the superior judgment and power of central government planners to correct the mistakes of capitalism. Good thing we didn't elect a Democratic Socialist president.

[Clifford Asness @CliffordAsness]

Gold has gone up 6.8% per annum since 1/1/1985. If that strikes you as fine but not as amazingly wildly exciting as your tweet implied, you are starting to get it.

US cash has compounded at 3.4% and the S&P 500 total return is 12.2% over the same period. 10-Year bonds are 5.8%.

In particular comments like the below implicitly assume cash earns the same 0% interest that Gold does. That’s, uh, wrong. Comparing Gold’s price in dollars 41 years ago to today and saying “the dollar has been destroyed” is just wrong if you don’t count interest, and then wrong if you do (but less wrong and at least you’re doing it correctly).

So what do you possibly think is your point? What do the other “fee-yat sucks” people mean?

[Ramesh Ponnuru @RameshPonnuru]

Returning illegally taken money isn't welfare.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

As everyone argues about the $40 trillion debt threshold, remember:

Its 100% the other party's fault. Your side has never hiked spending or cut taxes. And if they did it was for a good reason and paid for itself. And we can fix deficits entirely by going after the bad people.

[ol’ stocky ⛳️ @oldstocky]

Treat your body like a data center

Consume as much water and literature as possible

Upset local city council with your existence

[WFUV Sports @wfuvsports]

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Bob Ahrens. Bob was the longtime WFUV Sports Executive Producer from 1997-2018. He passed away this morning peacefully in his sleep at the age of 89.  [Thread]

[AnatolijUkraine @AnatoliUkraine]

Trump just posted this.

The President of the United States is publicly joking with Kim Jong Un — the dictator of one of the most brutal regimes on Earth.

Apparently, this is what “America First” looks like now: enemies get memes, dictators get admiration, and allies get threats.

[Rafique Tucker 🇺🇸🇮🇱 🇺🇦 @RiffRaf979]

I'm going to say once more that even if Mangione's murder of Brian Thompson magically solved the health care crisis, it would still be indefensible and evil, just as killing abortion doctors to stop abortions would be.

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

Last time our vacuum was broken we went to a repair place and it was covered in Trump memorabilia. Just went to a new vacuum place—covered with hand-made signs about Trump being Satan. Do they make apolitical vacuum repair places or is this known to be a feature of the trade?

[Alex Johnson @AlexH_Johnson]

Absolutely damning silence from the bank trade associations who, I thought, had serious concerns about crypto's repurposing of national trust bank charters and the AML risks posed by stablecoins.

[Christian Schneider @Schneider_CM]

A communication from the White House

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

There is no tension in these two propositions: 1) the second Trump administration is abusive, corrupt, and a civil liberties disaster. 2) "Woke 1" was a wrongheaded, counterproductive disaster for the U.S., Dems, left-leaning nonprofits, sense making organizations and more.

[Ronald Bailey @RonaldBailey]

Irony all the way down.

[Conor Friedersdorf @conor64]

I continue to marvel at how many of you voted for and support this man.

[Nicholas Decker @captgouda24]

Not content with losing the wars he has started, the President has moved onto losing wars which haven't started yet.