Yau Ma Tei

Sunny day, long weekend, and post-lunch coffee in the breeze.

Misty and gray.

I finally get it. 1) Raise tariffs. 2) Crash market. 3) USG gives $1000 to citizens in the form of New American Dynamism (NAD) Vouchers Like Russian Privatisation Vouchers. But for America. 4) Elmo/friends hold Trump 3 rallies, open voucher kiosks. Buy vouchers for $1100.

From Victor Klemperer's diary on 30 March 1933, two months to the day after the start of Hitler's chancellorship:

None of the country’s top 20 law firms (and only 3 of the top 100) are willing to publicly oppose Trump’s attacks on law firms. @sindap.bsky.social 🎁🔗 giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Descriptive article about the attitudes, sycophancy, helplessness. Even the fully-sycophantic have no idea but they are all-in on what is still a moving target. Why does he love tariffs? Because it is cash in an account he can call his. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Dear Jason Cummins, Attached is an article in the Financial Times, published yesterday. I feel you should know that some asshole is putting your name on stupid articles. Very truly yours, etc. www.ft.com/content/1de4...

4. Did you make investments in Canada/Mexico assuming that MY deal EXPLICITLY containing a 5yr review would hold for five years? Yes? 25% tariff on all Mexican/Canadian content. 5. You made a mistake calculating the amount of Canadian/Mexican content? 25% tariff on the whole thing

* MEXICAN PRESIDENT SHEINBAUM: WITHIN A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT, THERE SHOULD NOT BE TARIFFS @reuters.com

Has that other place given up the ghost for good?

I literally LOLed. Yesterday I posted the thread below both HERE and THERE and one of the responses OVER THERE was a link to a review about how Alexander Karp’s new book was about just that. An SV technobro takeover of govt. 10mins ago Jack posted this.

Today I added a new piece to the Bau Collection of Important Hong Kong Cultural and Kitsch Relics of the 1970-80s…

I find it interesting so many SV would-be ‘libertarian’ technobroligarchs say ‘no’ to so many things but these builders never seem to say what they want… (other than Thiel’s desire to make sea-steading a thing). There’s a reason for that.

plum porn

MAGA is a weird grouping. I’d use the ‘c’ word. Now tariffs are upon us, I see ‘anti-government libertarian’ types applauding them (whereas 20-40yrs ago ‘ small govt conservatives’ would have been aghast). I am sure they will all jump at the chance to drill for heavy oil and grow avocados.

Rescued another couple of (identical) hardwood Hong Kong armchairs from potential demise. One needs a couple of joints re-glued. At some point, I need to stop doing this….

Friday Afternoon Friday-afternooned pretty hard today.

If anyone has suggestions for best damn pineapple mooncakes in Hong Kong, I’m all ears. I love them. This year I’d like to “Collect’em all”

Starting early this year.

No better mode of transport in Hong Kong.

Rise and shine! It’s a quadruple espresso and post-holiday stollen kind of morning!

This is somehow “very Evan”. A podcast about heat pumps? Of course he’s doing that. And he’ll somehow no doubt make it interesting.

Happy 26th of December for those who celebrate!

I’ll take things Trump didn’t write for $1,000 - this ain’t even close lol

Recently took a peek at Twitter and the disinformation is getting substantially more dangerous. Someone could get killed. The tactics of constantly repeating outright lies, targeting specific people, repurposing years-old footage and presenting them as new is getting to another level. It’s scary.

Weekend pictures in HK

The ultimate question. On Jan 21, 2025, who gets to run the @POTUS account here and on twitter: Trump or Musk ?

Some incredible/depressing lines in this FT piece re the politicization of the Nippon Steel - US Steel deal, the politicizers' abuse of the CFIUS process, & its potential harms to US-Japan relations (& broader US economic/geopolitical objectives) https://www.ft.com/content/7679811f-f46c-4113-b9a2-…

I put a thread on The Other Place. Then a follow-up. It was too long but hordes of Bluesky users… actually just @gallimaufries.bsky.social) asked if I’d cross-post it here. It is stupidly long and could have been a ‘stack but I’m not quite there yet so here it is as text file screenshots.

Coffee and cormorants

Congrats to @costa2866.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Nearing day end…

Dr Ella McBiscuit (sorry Dr Hawkins!) has set up camp here at Blue Sky. Insta-follow! Her Biscuit Fu is most excellent. And her historical feed at The Other Place is AMAZING.

*WARREN LICHTENSTEIN CONSIDERS RETURN TO INVESTING IN JAPAN: FT

To get BlueSky up and running, if you see content you find worth re-skeeting (shivers just on writing it) to populate the platform with platform-worth content, pls RS. Anyone’s content. Likes don’t push it into your followers’ algos. And a better timeline is what makes this place better.

One of the reasons why I still like The Other Place is the serendipitous. I like wood craft so follow some furniture restoring and wood-turning accounts. I like audio so follow musicians and the odd vintage audio account. I occasionally comment on turntables (cc @moyeen.bsky.social).

On the other place I have been warning periodically of ‘end-user certificates’ for rare commodities. This looks like the start of it. Language seems a little odd but you can bet every exporter will be asking for clarification.

(AP) - China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.

La fameuse fenêtre d’Overton

Bau Global’s HQ office Seating Nook has a New Nook Look - lots of brown and red. The old decrepit freebie sofa I had finally got too old. I scoured the classifieds and bingo. Need to get another sub-cushion to make the sofa napworthy. I napped. It is Nappable But Not Napworthy atm.

There ya go.

If your flight departs from Runway 07C and you’re heading eastbound, choose a right side window seat

OK, I made a FinTwit starter pack. If you are reading this, are FinTwit affiliated, and want to be in it, reply to this skeet and I'll put you in it go.bsky.app/Hj3TtSv

The replies to Obama’s benign Thanksgiving Message on The Other Place are a total cesspool. Hordes of blue ticks outraged about a brown ex-president, each getting thousands of likes. If I didn’t know better I’d say there are a LOT of bots but Elmo’s algo to boost blue ticks works for them.

This is either sloppy or subtle. If sloppy, he should know better. If subtle, he should have made up more papers. After all, having the AI make up stuff is ‘free speech’ isn’t it? Quite difficult for the opponent to complain about misleading content with intent to deceive.

Everybody, please put up a profile picture, even if it is only a picture of your cat. And write at least a few words in your bio. It is hard to distinguish people from bots otherwise. Thank you. And thanks to those who follow me.

Hong Kong in late November to late January is full of blue skies and great sunsets.