Pun Salad

Relevant to (especially) the bull on the left side of Mr. Ramirez's cartoon is this WSJ story: Trump’s Signature to Appear on U.S. Paper Currency.

Trump seems to always find new ways to get his name and face on stuff. This is nothing new, I guess. But putting your name on a product that will almost certainly continue to be worth less and less: Is that a smart way to remind people who's in charge?

Also weighing in, Jim Geraghty: Trump Signs the Dollar Bill. If you're wondering if anyone could outdo Bessent in cloying sycophancy, Jim finds:

I am not sure that even Kim Jong Un gets praise this overblown, yet undeserved.

Also of note:

• Goin' to the "No Kings" Rally? Jonathan Alpert (a psychotherapist) says you may be disappointed in the result: ‘No Kings’: Politics as Bad Group Therapy. (WSJ gifted link)

  After a “No Kings” rally last October, I was walking through the area and paused to read the signs. A woman asked me, “Aren’t these great?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “I kind of like some of Trump’s policies.”

  “Well, f— you then.”

  The No Kings rallies are set to return Saturday—the third such round in the past year—built around a slogan that suggests Americans are living under something closer to tyranny than democracy. It’s a striking claim for a country that fought a revolution to overthrow a king and hasn’t had one since. Still, it’s revealing. It reflects a broader shift in how political disagreement is understood—not as a clash of views, but as a struggle between victims and villains.

  I'm sure I could head on down to a nearby demonstration to get my fair share of abuse… but no, I think I'll pass. Because, not only can I not always get what I want, but…

• I'm presuaded by Thomas W. Hazlett. Who wrote, back in 1976 In Defense of Apathy.

  We hear much these days of the virtue of “involvement.” Honored are the “activists” who so boldly and humanely watch out for their fellow man. “Community-minded,” “civic awareness,” and “socially conscious” are true-blue banners, the merit badges of the 100 per cent Twentieth Century solid citizen.

  The cry for involvement is most frequently raised on the campus. Second-semester freshmen, in frantic search for the passionate days of relevance and revolution of such recent memory, ask: Where is the involvement? Where is the community action? Where are the people who really care?

  Wake up people! Get involved! Whip that Apathy! Make a better world! Organize your Community! Change your Nation! Reform the World!

  On the contrary!

  Maligned and persecuted, apathy—in the social sense of the word—is possibly the noblest of civic virtues. The ability to mind your own business, to let others do their thing, and to concentrate your efforts on your own life, are the discerning characteristics of a well-adjusted and competent human being.

  You may disagree, but (see above) I don't care.

• I'm going to treat this as good news. Matthew Petti claims Trump can't TACO his way out of the Iran war.

  The U.S.-Iranian war has taken on a strange rhythm. Several times, often just before the end of the trading day or weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Iran is about to fold and the war will be over soon. Billions of dollars through markets moved as traders bet that oil prices would fall and stock prices would rise. Then they came into work the next business day to discover that the war was still happening.

  The latest iteration happened this week when Trump claimed to have held "very strong talks" with Iran, setting a five-day deadline for an agreement. He then hinted at a planned peace summit in Pakistan. Iran publicly rejected both a U.S. peace proposal and the very idea of direct talks. An Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Trump's opening offer, sent through Pakistani middlemen, was "unreasonable" and nothing like the media leaks from the American side suggested.

  Gee, I guess we'll just have to keep blowing up "Iranian officials" until we find some that are willing to take even an "unreasonable" offer.

• I'm a sucker for any article with brain worms in the headline. And Jeff Maurer delivers the goods: The Brain Worms Behind the Institutional Investor Ban.

  Congress is working on an affordable housing bill that may end up making housing less affordable. That’s Orwellian even for Congress, which has a long tradition of giving bills names that describe the opposite of what the bill does, e.g. a bill to breed mutated pterodactyls that feast on children’s brains will be called “The Safe Playgrounds Act”.

  The part of the bill that turns an otherwise-good-effort into a possible net negative is a provision that restricts investment in single-family homes built for renters. The logic is that big companies shouldn’t own houses, because…well, the “because” is what this article is about. The argument that investors shouldn’t invest is unique to houses; you never hear someone say “companies shouldn’t invest in restaurants” or “you should only have a car if you whittle it yourself out of a log”.

  And the bizarre fact is that the two main proponents of this viewpoint are Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump. Here are the two putting partisanship aside to agree on a dumb aphorism that could worsen our housing crisis:

  TRUMP AT THE STATE OF THE UNION: “We want homes for people, not for corporations.”

  WARREN ON CNBC: “Homes should be for families, not giant corporations.”

  Jeff points out that (um…) "giant corporations" would not actually be living in those homes. ("They wouldn't fit!")