Fee Fi Fo Dumb

The Tariff Wars Have Come

Every day, the news seems to get 25% more stressful. And so it was today as Trump's much anticipated trade war with China and US allies Canada and Mexico arrived with a boom (and then a bust). "U.S. President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20%, sparking trade wars that could slam economic growth and lift prices for Americans still smarting from years of high inflation." You didn't need to read the news become aware of the new tariffs, you just needed to check your stock portfolio. U.S. stock markets plungeas Trump's tariffs spark fears about a trade war.

+ Vox: Two hugely important questions about Trump’s trade war. "In the short term, Americans will likely see higher prices on many products or goods that are imported or are made with imported components, from cars to electronics to agricultural products to gasoline (the US imports Canadian crude oil). Meanwhile, American companies that export their products to these countries, such as the agriculture industry, will take a hit from retaliatory tariffs. But where this all is headed in the longer term is far from clear, and will depend on two major questions. First: what exactly is Trump’s preferred endgame for his trade war? And second: How bad will the economic fallout at home be?" (And third: Why won't my broker return my calls?)

+ Canadian PM Justin Trudeau describes Donald Trump's tariffs on his country, as well as China and Mexico, as "a dumb thing to do." (One pattern to note: The administration seems determined to do things to prop up our enemies while implementing policies - and throwing endless shade - to harm our allies.) Here's the latest from BBC and CNBC.

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Under My (Green) Thumb

One economic area where China and America are competing is in the transition to green technologies. The competition isn't close. And it may become less so as Trump shutters clean energy projects. "How China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter by far, manages this newfound influence over the energies of tomorrow will have far-reaching ramifications for global politics, trade and the fight against climate change. With a climate-skeptic president in the White House, Beijing sees an opportunity to cement its commanding lead and fulfill one of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s key goals: to surpass the United States and European nations in advanced technologies." WaPo (Gift Article): How China came to dominate the world in renewable energy. "In 2020, just over 1 million battery-powered and hybrid cars were sold in China, making up about 5 percent of the car sales in the country. Last year, 40 percent of all cars sold in China, the world’s largest auto market, were electric."

+ Meanwhile, BYD cars now have an on-vehicle DJI drone launch platform. (I would've loved something like this to embarrass my kids during carpool drop-off.)

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Worshipping The Golden Calif

"It should go without saying California is critical to US economic dominance globally, accounting for more than 14% of US’s $28 trillion of GDP as measured by the World Bank and more than 50% greater than the next largest state by the size of its economy - Texas. Among the many superlatives that can be assigned to the Golden State, consider that there isn't a major industry in any of the other 49 states that comes close to overtaking its California counterpart." California gets a endless barrage of criticism these days. But the state must be doing something right. Not only for itself. It's also supporting the federal government. "California, as measured by the balance of payments, sends much more to Trump's America than it gets back, about $83.1 billion more as the biggest 'donor state,' according to the Rockefeller Institute. That’s almost three times more than the No. 2 state, New Jersey, at $28.9 billion. (The top four states are all considered 'blue,' sending a combined $156.9 billion to DC. Texas, a champion of Republican ideals, takes $71.1 billion more than it gives.)" What can I say, Texas. This ain't our first rodeo. Bloomberg (Gift Article): California Keeps Making the US Great — Again.

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Chronic Symptoms

It's impossible to imagine that humanity would suffer a global pandemic and come out unchanged. And we certainly didn't. "America is a harsher place, more self-interested and nakedly transactional. We barely trust one another and are less sure that we owe our fellow Americans anything — let alone the rest of the world. The ascendant right is junking our institutions, and liberals have grown skeptical of them, too, though we can’t agree about how exactly they failed us. A growing health libertarianism insists on bodily autonomy, out of anger about pandemic mitigation and faith that personal behavior can ward off infection and death. And the greatest social and technological experiment of our time, artificial intelligence, promises a kind of exit from the realm of human flesh and microbes into one built by code. We tell ourselves we’ve moved on and hardly talk about the disease or all the people who died or the way the trauma and tumult have transformed us. But Covid changed everything around us." Five years after the first headlines caught our attention, David Wallace-Wells reflects in the NYT (Gift Article): How Covid Remade America. (Please put on your rubber gloves and wipe down this article with disinfectant before reading.)

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Extra, Extra

Internet Disservice: "What begins with casual interactions between girls and intermediaries over public-facing profiles and community groups on sites such as Facebook, soon gives way to a broader, nefarious international network. The photos can end up in hundreds of online catalogs that are distributed over Facebook or WhatsApp groups to men who travel the world looking to meet foreign women or prey upon young girls. In other cases, men use dating apps—particularly Match Group Inc.’s Tinder—to hook up with women and young girls once they’re on the ground. In both scenarios, clandestine rendezvous are arranged using home-sharing sites like Airbnb Inc., which afford a higher degree of secrecy than hotels." Bloomberg (Gift Article): Sex Traffickers in Colombia Are Using Facebook, Tinder and Airbnb to Exploit Minors.

+ Keep Your Pause Off Me: Trump has paused Ukraine aid in a move that a former US ambassador to Russia describes as being the equivalent of the US switching sides in WWII. Zelensky called last week's Oval Office meeting regrettable and said he's "ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership." Here's the latest from BBC. Meanwhile, JD Vance offended our allies again.

+ Lech and Balances: "Poland’s democracy hero Lech Wałęsa and dozens of other former political prisoners in Poland have written a letter to President Donald Trump, telling him that his treatment of Ukraine’s president at the Oval Office last week filled them 'with horror and distaste.'" (That's the new shock and awe.)

+ A Hole: RFK Jr sparks alarm after backing vitamins to treat measles amid outbreak. "Kennedy wrote for Fox News about the benefits of 'good nutrition' and vitamin A – but did not explicitly recommend highly effective vaccines."

+ Skipping Town: Some GOP members of Congress have been taking heat at their town halls, mostly aimed at the DOGE cuts. They've figured out a solution. Speaker Johnson tells GOP lawmakers to skip town halls after an onslaught of protests.

+ Up Sh-t Creek: US supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies.

+ Where Protection: "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped its suit against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo on Tuesday over their handling of fraud on the peer-to-peer payments network Zelle." (The bureau is going to keep dropping consumer protection suits until the whole department is rendered functionless.)

+ Wax On, Whacks Off: "Trump’s elevation of the Facebook post showed just how easy it can be for someone like McCune to become part of the president’s unusual media diet — and appear to influence U.S. policy." WaPo (Gift Article) with a headline that should be put into a time capsule to explain to future generations what 2025 was like: How an Arizona DJ and karate instructor won Trump’s ear on Ukraine.

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Bottom of the News

"Genetically engineered woolly mice could one day help populate the Arctic with hairy, genetically modified elephants and help stop the planet warming." Woolly mice designed to engineer mammoth-like elephants.

+ Tesla owners get creative to distance themselves from Elonwith new car logos & projectors.