Author: DOuG pRATt

Severed Brains and Connected People

I don’t subscribe to Apple TV, so I rely upon Bismo to not only tell me what’s worth watching, but to invite me to watch with him.

First, it was Severance. Currently, there is Plur1bus, which is Vince Gilligan returning to his X-Files roots.

Both are sci-fi series about social isolation. A small group of people who, in distinctly different ways, are separated from everybody else. With Severance a voluntary, lobotomy-like operation literally cuts people off from one part of themselves. In Plur1bus, the disconnect is involuntary.

I’ve been checking in on Dilbert’s Scott Adams, to see how he’s doing with his cancer treatments. One of his followers has suggested Pluribus to Scott, who is a Trump follower.

Mo’ Moanin’ O’er Money

Donny’s repeating his first term economic mistakes. His tariff taxes have done nothing to reduce China’s trade surplus. He’s hurting farmers and making direct payments of tariff money to keep them afloat.

China’s Trade Surplus Climbs Past $1 Trillion for First Time

President Trump’s tariffs weren’t enough to hold back the global export flood by China, which pushed past last year’s record in just 11 months.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/business/china-trade-surplus.html

Trump Insists Tariffs Will Buoy the Economy. For Now, He’s on Damage Control.

The president rolled out a $12 billion bailout for farmers as he makes the case that his policy is working — or will soon.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/us/politics/trump-trade-affordability.html

What does economics journalist David Wessel at the Brookings Institute think the Fed is going to do?