Pacific Standard 🚜🌻☂️

Opinion | Trump Is Playing Rope-a-Dope With Elite Law Firms

Good piece on the law firms that caved in to Trump’s bullying.

"DNA is less forgiving of errors than English text"

AI writes entire microbial genome The model was trained on 9 trillion DNA letters similar to how other AIs are trained on internet text.

AI writes entire microbial genome

www.semafor.com/article/03/0...

For years, we warned that the case against Julian Assange could be used against mainstream journalists, despite what many pundits said.

Well … now, it’s happening.

Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social expose how the Trump administration is citing the WikiLeaks case in court to target journalists’ rights.

Cockroaches or Termites? The Private Credit Question
This week’s news from the private credit markets in advanced economies echoes Jamie Dimon’s recent warning about "cockroaches"—the idea that early signs of excesses are likely to be followed by others.
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At a minimum, this should open up the spigots of US support to Ukraine so Russia loses the war it caused.

> @schatz.bsky.social

This is the end

what's going on guys

*BLACKROCK’S $26 BILLION PRIVATE CREDIT FUND LIMITS WITHDRAWALS

A long tailed bird with a bright red bill and feet.

Red billed blue magpie.
#BirdOfTheDay
#ColourfulCaptures

The invasion of Cuba is next.

The War on Iran Puts Global Chip Supplies and AI Expansion at Risk From helium extraction in Qatar to shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, the semiconductor industry depends on fragile links across the Gulf. Escalation could ripple through global chip production.

Everything reads different when you read through the lens of Cold War 2. Unlike the first, CW2 puts us in a paradigm where capital now works for both sides and where it can—to the extent that capital can organize itself despite its own internal competitions—exerts a fulcrum to invoke its leverage.

1895:

I hope you're right — but I worry that, over the longer period, the math is just not in the West's favor, especially if the CCP has success exporting its political economic model throughout the global south.

I went to an extraordinary auction at Taiwan's police academy, where a fleet of rare supercars belonging to alleged international crime kingpin Chen Zhi were sold. It cost $16K just to go inside to place a bid!

One of the things that is hardest to swallow about global public discourse in 2026 is the collective refusal of the leadership to name the reality that we've been in a Cold War since COVID-19 and the reason we won't discuss it is because of our reliance on Chinese industry to keep the jig afloat.

Why China Won’t Help Iran Beijing cares about the oil, not the regime.

"More than 55 percent of China’s total oil imports in 2025 came from the Middle East (approximately 13 percent from Iran itself), most of which must pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway bordered by Iran." www.foreignaffairs.com/china/why-ch...

Nothing brings out the hot takes like a few beers and watching your team take a 13 run deficit in the second inning...

GWOT was the conservative Vietnam.

*That Cold War Feeling When...

TCWFW your country is doing global proxy war but has now been drawn into participating itself in the minor theater...

Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.

You can see why Russia sees an opportunity to settle scores. "Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly" www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

A professor I had once described team-sport as a beautiful thing because it's like a real-time philosophy demonstration, where the participants iterate and communicate their positions, extemporaneously, with their bodies — as if they are speaking with their physical movements in natural space.

Whoops!

Taiwan’s ‘Social Shield’: The Democratic Stakes Beyond Semiconductors In any scenario where Taiwan loses its democratic sovereignty, Taiwanese women lose first and lose most.

thediplomat.com/2026/03/taiw...

🤦🤦🤦😏 This FS1 commentator is 💯 okay with calling Taiwan a country but can't figure out how to name which country that might be....

#TeamTaiwan

Time for beer and baseball ⚾🫡🍻

Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be pitching against Team Taiwan, who will be starting Cheng Hao-chun.

The enduring logic of US Taiwan policy | Brookings It is necessary and important for America’s leaders to understand the logic underpinning U.S. strategy and policy on Taiwan.

Richard Bush, former chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (1997-2002), on what #Trump should and shouldn't say to Xi on his trip to China:

1️⃣ I would advise him not to make any changes in declaratory policy that I'm guessing that Beijing might ask him to make.

www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

“I still don’t really know whether the internet as we now experience it – constantly, on our phones – has made it impossible for any narrative to stick with the public, and whether this, in turn, makes it impossible to tell any story that might inspire abiding dissent.”

– @jaycaspiankang