Steven Jens

Politics and some finance. RTs might mean the toddler has the iPad. Married to @candace_jens

[Steven Jens @stevenjens]

@iowahawkblog I walked through a cow pasture and stepped in some premature.

[Steven Jens @stevenjens]

@exjon A lot of tweets start by claiming expertise and you have to figure out how much credibility they warrant -- it's kind of refreshing to see an opinion candidly preceded with "I just learned that there are mountains."

[Jim Geraghty @jimgeraghty]

Trump destroyed whatever legitimate argument his administration had by exercising his powers in ludicrously capricious ways, announcing he increased tariffs on Canada because he didn’t like a television commercial and when he increased tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the tone of the country’s president. We can debate what the Founding Fathers intended about the powers of the presidency, but they surely did not intend _that_.

A lot of leaders might be tempted to exercise powers in arbitrary and capricious ways and some may do it, but Trump is unique in that he feels the need to publicly brag about doing it.

https://t.co/2Hm3ssWfG3

[Casey Mattox @CaseyMattox_]

Justice Gorsuch is often called the most libertarian justice. I think this might be his most (capital L) Libertarian opinion. Not just because of its content. But because the basic point is: "I noticed that 5 of you agreed with me. With all respect, how very dare you."

[Steven Jens @stevenjens]

@svdate @jessesingal @scottlincicome Some of them chose rule of law that day, but changed their minds later.

[David French @DavidAFrench]

Fracturing our alliances would do far more harm to our national security than coercively acquiring Greenland would help. We can already station troops there. But we're delusional if we think we don't need allies. The U.S. shoulders less of the mutual defense burden than the Trump administration would have you believe -- 39 percent, per a recent RAND study. That's a plurality, of course, but below Cold War highs, and we would be far weaker if a substantial part of the remaining 61 percent is alienated from the U.S.

[Mike and Jeff show @AgrisAcademy @AgrisAcademy]

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.

This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

"When you use your leverage to extort lavish praise from people, they will offer it. But they don’t mean a word of it. Not a word. And in their hearts they hate you for demeaning them in this fashion instead of treating them with respect."
https://t.co/a1iLoowtOZ

[David French @DavidAFrench]

The Trump admin is systematically lying to federal courts. The lies are being exposed, but not before they do immense damage in the court of public opinion (MAGA believes the lies -- which are often trumpeted across right-wing media -- and doesn't know about the debunking) and to the reputation and long-term effectiveness of the DOJ.

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

If Congress had the slightest courage or self-respect, they’d launch oversight hearings of these allegations. If the allegations are false or overstated they’d be helping the administration and the country by clearing the air. If they are found to be true, and part of administration policy, impeachment proceedings of those responsible should be launched.

But not caring either way and doing nothing is flatly a violation of their oaths. The GOP controlled Congress is simply derelict.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

Q: "Ok, then what if we eliminated the Social Security tax cap but provided no additional benefits?"

A: That's already assumed below - and Social Security falls back into deficit within 3 years. So we still need to address the benefit side and the age.
https://t.co/sy0qw7L73x

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

There's a myth that international laws & norms must be useless because there's no international Leviathan, & thuggish countries flout them (so why shouldn't we?). Responses: 1. People flout laws against murder, assault, & rape, too; that doesn't prove the laws are useless. The relevant question is how much worse life would be without the laws. 2. Most of our social behavior is in practice regulated by norms, not laws: nudity, lewdness, belching & farting, racist & misogynistic jokes, basic table manners, queuing,... either there is no law, or it's unenforceable. The norms are enforced by ostracism, gossip, shows of contempt. 3. Nations depend on each other (trade, terrorism, piracy, pandemics, borders, extradition, ...) so sanctions and exclusion are not toothless. 4. War is in fact NOT the "realist," pragmatic, unromantic alternative, but often leads to catastrophic failures: US in Vietnam, US in Afghanistan, USSR in Afghanistan, Iraq in Kuwait.. https://t.co/blRzIrdMSO

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Trump's Greenland threats undermine his own efforts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine. Any US security guarantee included in such a deal would be hard to take seriously if he is willing to ignore the security guarantee the US already has with Denmark.

[Alex Tabarrok @ATabarrok]

The Tyranny of the Complainers

Increasingly, public institutions seem to exist to manage the obsessions of a tiny number of neurotic—and possibly malicious—complainers.

https://t.co/sheywEjztr

[Chris Freiman @cafreiman]

Capitalism is what ended child labor in the United States (From “Child Labor in the United States” by Robert Whaples)

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

The president’s TruthSocial post about the Reiners’ horrific deaths is quite a contrast from how Rob Reiner reacted to the murder of Charlie Kirk.

[Steven Jens @stevenjens]

@charlescwcooke The economic resources required to support a person have to be produced by someone. The rest of us should support those who can't produce enough to take care of themselves, but those who can shouldn't resent their inability to mooch off of the rest of us.

[Steven Jens @stevenjens]

@MicahBeckwith If you lack tolerance for disloyalty, you must *hate* Trump, who has no loyalty to anyone else, even though he prizes loyalty to him far too highly.

[Justin Amash @justinamash]

“Admiral Bradley truly deserves all the credit for September 2. That’s Admiral Mitch Bradley. M-I-T-C-H B-R-A-D-L-E-Y. The strike on September 2 was all him. Bravo, Mitch.”

[Erik Sperling @ErikSperling]

Trump says every “drug boat” equals 25,000 American lives saved.

@JuanOrlandoH trafficked 400 tons of cocaine — the equivalent of ~200 drug boats.

By Trump’s own formula, he just pardoned a man who “killed” 5 million Americans.