Monday, April 14, 2025

Rather than spamming social media with individual links, I thought I'd start collecting that links to news stories and share it here periodically. If you want, I believe you can also subscribe to receive the posts via email as they are published. I hope you find it helpful, and please feel free to let me know what you think.

The Economy

The Associated Press reports on what is happening in the bond market, which "has experts worried that big banks, funds and traders are losing faith in America as a stable, predictable, good place to store their money." The New York Times addresses the same topic, quoting a former Fed official who states "[e]verything that the administration has done in the recent months seems well calibrated to overturn the supremacy of the dollar." Similarly, The Atlantic has two different articles about how Trump has already damaged the US's economic standing in the world, possibly irreparably. This would be catastrophically bad, and I don't think enough people are following this story.

Here's a rundown of the various arguments in favor of Trump's tariffs and why they are bad and dumb.

Authoritarian Dystopia Watch

Good reporting here on the case of Andry José Hernandez, the gay makeup artist from Venezuela who was sent without due process by the US government to the El Salvador torture prison. He was present in the US as an asylum seeker, claiming he faced persecution in Venezuela as a gay man. He has denied any connection to Venezuelan gangs, but he appears to have been flagged as a gang member solely on the basis of tattoos of crowns on each wrist, next to the words "Mom" and "Dad." The sole individuals who decided he was a gang member appear to be two private prison employees, one of whom is a disgraced former police officer with credibility issues. While the Department of Homeland Security claims that they do not rely solely on tattoos in reaching conclusions about gang connections, there appears to be no other evidence in this instance.

Attorney Scott Greenfield gives a good rundown of what has happened (as of April 12, 2025) in the Abrego Garcia case following SCOTUS's ruling. In a filing in that case, the government submitted a declaration stating that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still alive and in prison in El Salvador. As expected, the government has taken the position that it will "facilitate" the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia, who the government admits was sent to the torture prison due to an administrative error, to the US by allowing him to come back, but that it either cannot or will not "effectuate" his return by actually bringing him back. Trump is meeting with the president of El Salvador today.

Maybe you're not worried because this is only happening to non-citizens. A leading scholar of authoritarianism succinctly points out how mistaken that logic is:

Wired has an article about how to protect your digital privacy when you're crossing into the US from abroad.

An article at the Cato Institute recounts the Trump administration's attacks on law firms and judges and explains what it all means.

Health and Medicine

Unsurprisingly, RFK Jr. continues to wage a war against vaccines. He is going to be responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths, and that's if we're lucky.

The FDA announced it's going to phase out some animal testing of drugs and possibly use computer modeling and artificial intelligence to predict drug behavior instead. This seems unwise.

Politics

A member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal--the right-leaning newspaper owned by the Murdoch family--wrote a column suggesting Trump should be impeached.

Impeachment is the obvious remedy--and the remedy intended by the Framers--for all manner of Trump's misconduct, and it would behoove the country for many more people to start saying so, even if there aren't yet enough Congressional Republicans on board.

Sports

Jurrangelo Cijntje, the Seattle Mariners' top draft pick from 2024, is a "switch" pitcher, meaning he can pitch both his left arm and his right arm. Baseball Prospectus daydreams about what he could do (though unfortunately it's in a paywalled article):

Miscellanea

Ok, this is awesome.