I'm currently reading David Kynaston's series, Tales of a New Jerusalem. It's good stuff. A lot of bottom-up history is the same bullshit with the protagonists flipped, but this is a ground-up story of ordinary people leading ordinary lives.

In case the stakes weren't already high enough, every four years we're going to decide who gets to write American history in accordance with their contemporary prejudices.

I never had COVID. The shots worked.

The BlueSky CEO can literally invite every Nazi on Earth onto this platform, and I'll never see them thanks to the wonderful people who maintain these block lists.

What is it about the road to hell? If the state forces stores to charge more for items scanned by a human, then it will fire all the humans and add more self-checkout. Oh, that's right. It's paved with good intentions.

Miles Grant@milesgrant.bsky.social · 4d ago

Went to highwayside gas station for road trip grab & go dinner with kids & groaned aloud when I realized it was self-checkout - would’ve gone anywhere else Dems everywhere should copy this bill to require a 10% discount for self-checkout

MLB's career slugging leader is Babe Ruth (.6897). The best the Steroid Era could produce was Barry Bonds (.6069). We can file this one under Unbreakable Records.

Leopold Aschenbrenner and Peter Thiel have both created and then bankrupted hedge funds. We need a word for people with esoteric knowledge in one field who assume they are authorities on completely unrelated ones. Google claims this is Nobel disease, but it feels like reverse Dunning-Kruger.

In high school, all the kids knew me as a Jets fan who liked the Ramones. But now, after all these years, they can finally know me as <whisper>a Jets fan who likes the Ramones</whisper>

Donald Trump's Iran War "plan"

If the final stage of your war plan involves a popular uprising to topple your enemy, then you don't have a war plan and you're pretty of a dumb fsck.

Whining about umpires is as old as the game, but it's changing it in new ways. Players and fans, expect a perfect call when a batter lays off a pitch 1/8th of an inch outside the strike zone. Instead of whining, defend the plate with that large wooden stick in your hands.

When Trump says he's calling off a strike due to progress in Iran-US negotiations, he knows that Iran can hear him, right?

From left to right: Comte, Appenzeller and Abondance. That's all you need

Warsh thinks Central banks should be boring and regulated to a less prominent role. He wants markets to set rates on their own. But without guidance, and with limited information, investors will be forced to price additional uncertainty which will push rates needlessly higher.

President Volodymyr Zelensky rolled out the red carpet for Laura Loomer, gave her 40 minutes then had his people give her a tour centered around her personal interests. She left impressed. The Henny Youngman of Ukraine has become its Winston Churchill.

If you think this sort of destruction will magically stop once Trump finally leaves office, then you don't understand Republicans or their donors.

Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It

The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.

nytimes.com

If you're depending on the United States government for retirement income, then you don't have a retirement plan. Save like your life depends on it.

Theresa McLeod@westtexascatlady.bsky.social · 6d ago

Then cut me a check for all the money I paid into it, including interest. So we can’t retire and will be forced to work until our last breath? Shameful. 😡

Warsh is a bullshitter. He strings together technical terms that he doesn't seem to understand. Bond traders see right through it FT: "Beyond reiterating a commitment to the 2 per cent inflation target, the new Fed chair demonstrated an aversion to explaining his or the committee’s thinking."

Some poor bastard is going to write the definitive biography of Donald Trump and I pity them. It will take decades to get to the bottom of thousands of controversies. Bone spurs? That could be three months right there.

Markets have a peculiar property: they reward confidence just enough to encourage it, but not enough to validate it indefinitely.

"This time is different" is both ironic and non ironic. Those who say it in earnest experience an outcome that is the opposite of their expectations. Listeners who've heard it before start prepping for the fire sale....

This is helpful, but even better would be mandatory liability insurance. If your gun harms or kills someone, they or their survivors should be able to sue the pants off your insurance company. Actuaries will ensure that unhinged people don't have access to guns.

Colin Gray, Father of Teenage Shooter in Georgia, Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

Prosecutors argued that Colin Gray bore responsibility for the 2024 shooting because he had given his son a gun and failed to act as the teen’s mental health deteriorated.

nytimes.com

In 2024, Trump received 82 percent of the white evangelical/born again vote. He lost the rest of the vote by a whopping 18-point margin, 58 percent to 40 percent.

Some humans watched this performance-chasing curve and still bought in early July. Their names are Bag and Holder.

Kevin Warsh, meet the bond vigilantes.

An acquihire is when a company buys a smaller one, not for its products or services, but for its staff.

Billion-dollar ‘acqui-hires’ are bad for competition

From Google to Microsoft to Meta, some of the biggest tech deals of the past few years have been staff moves

giftarticle.ft.com

Favorite cheeses 1. Appenzeller 2. Abondance 3. Gruyère 4. Emmentaler 5. Comté

By @jamellebouie.net: This would be scary if Elon Musk were an incel loser in his mommy's basement. But since he's the world's richest man, it's fscking terrifying.

Opinion | Why Do We Tolerate Elon Musk’s Racist Commentary? (Gift Article)

Why does the owner of X get a pass for what he says and does there?

nytimes.com

It takes a while for events to move my credit accumulation model. The restart of Trump's War has only now become visible: inflation expectations are rising, long yields are climbing, bonds are selling off, equities are softening, and credit is weakening. Overall, the system is fragile but functional

Fun fact: When they're both at home, the sun sets on the Pirates 19 minutes after it sets on the Phillies.