Day: April 8, 2025, 10:59 PM

Crack Country

Chill Clowns, Evil, Political Economy

I’ve not seen such insanity since watching a grown-ass man steal his own kids’ clothes to pawn and buy crack in North Florida.

And yes, that is real. So is the entire country being destroyed before our eyes now.

Macro Lacking

Chill Clowns, Tech

The more I learn about Kubernetes, Docker, microservices and the like the more it’s clear that it was all designed by people who knew absolutely nothing about networking, the impact of latency, what true scalability would or should look like, usability, or already-existing technologies.

It’s all just clown-level stuff. No wonder it took over.

Gadget

Chill Clowns, Political Economy

I Invented a Popular Kitchen Gadget. Tariffs Will Kill My Business.

And this will be happening a lot too; about 20% of the businesses in the US are unsustainable with current tariffs. If the tariff carnage continues this shuttering of previously-viable concerns will have vast follow-on effects. Depression, of course, but more than that. Somewhere between 40-60% of restaurants and service businesses will close. Entire neighborhoods will empty out as people cannot pay their mortgages any longer. Tent cities will sprout up across the land. Crime will rise and many areas will fall into chaos.

Every time massive tariffs have been enacted in the past, a depression has occurred. This time will be no different.

If you have favorite restaurants, visit them in the next few months. They probably will not be there in a year. And after that, you might not have any money anyway.

Ress

Chill Political Economy, Prediction

I’m glad I was old enough to talk to my great-grandmother on what living through the Great Depression was like. She died in 1986 and was born between 1900-1903 (can’t remember for sure).

My grandparents recalled the tail end of it, but my great-gran remembered the whole thing as she was in her twenties when it began. I was pretty young when we discussed it, but I do have a clear memory of her saying that her family went from living in a three-bedroom house to being forced to downgrade to what was basically a converted shed. She also said that food became unaffordable and for several years they were reduced to eating one small meal a day.

A lot of you aren’t going to need Ozempic anymore with what’s on the way. And will be doing a reprise of the life of my great-gran. Hope you like your converted sheds or refrigerator boxes by the side of the road, because to be perfectly frank that’s where many of you reading this will end up in the next few years.

Get ready now to avoid that fate later.

Chill Links

When consumer goods are expensive, it’s not worth taking risks and trying things you might end up disliking, or might not have the skill to execute on. Kelsey is correct about the optionality aspect.

I’m not going to be able to tell you about the consequences of EVERY lost grant, but I’m going to try. Let’s start with the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) program for pathogens of pandemic concern.

The Device Throttling the World’s Electrified Future.

Why Trump May Get Away With His Tariff Trauma.

In the search for life on exoplanets, finding nothing is something too.

This is the stock market’s worst start to a presidential term in modern history. And the good news is that it’ll only get worse from here. Depression on the way.

Hey Democrats: Stop fiddling while Trump burns America. But they won’t.

Europe’s GDPR privacy law is headed for red tape bonfire within ‘weeks.’

There Are Signs of a Category 5 Housing Crisis Forming and Coming Straight For Us.