Sam Baron

In every Republican presidency of my lifetime there's been a recession and a new war in the Middle East.

Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...

Trump promised Maga the US wouldn't police the world - now it's running Venezuela The world now watches on with astonishment, fear and horror - what's next?

“The world now appears to be at the mercy of a 79-year-old egomaniac…there is no doctrine, no philosophy, no sense to what America will do next.

“Foreign policy relies on predictability and stability, and Trump is allergic to both—and with no-one around him either able or willing to rein him in.”

The great rebalancing of area studies Western cuts and China’s expansion are shifting area studies eastward, reshaping global knowledge production.

"The great rebalancing of area studies is underway. The question is not whether this shift will continue — it will — but whether Western institutions can adapt quickly enough to remain relevant in an increasingly multipolar academic landscape." eastasiaforum.org/2025/10/11/t...

It is unfathomable to me that we’re all just supposed to be okay with higher energy costs and more air and light pollution, in exchange for a machine that steals personal data and copyrighted material and produces slop and wage theft, and big tech can do this to our society unilaterally.

Japanese baseball fans have been quick to adopt the Dodgers as their favorite club, but Ohtani is also bringing new local fans to the park in baseball-mad LA and having a positive effect on Japan's soft power. 👉 ebx.sh/XihDhf

Police fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators during a protest in Indonesia. Photo by Juni Kriswanto/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Indonesia, rising unemployment and inflation have driven days of demonstrations, which spread across the country after a deadly clash with police. nyti.ms/4mKFpOo

Pentagon says Japan must meet ‘global standard’ and spend 5% of GDP on defense Both allies had been mum on whether the U.S. would press Japan specifically to hit the 5% target amid political sensitivities over the issue.

The Pentagon has set a “global standard” for Japan and other U.S. allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense, in the first official confirmation that Washington is asking Tokyo to pump up its defense budget even further.

U.S. Tells Its Diplomats in Vietnam to Avoid War Anniversary Events The reversal adds another Trump administration blow to decades of reconciliation efforts.

This indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the reconciliation between the US & Vietnam over the last three decades since normalization. The deep level of trust rests on open & honest dialogue and the hard work of countless diplomats on both sides. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/w...

Trump Is Losing Asia An incoherent policy is speeding Beijing’s rise.

In the new geometry of trade, the United States is self-marginalizing, and China has become the top trading partner to most countries in the region, Robert A. Manning writes.

I suppose there are worse things for (my) business.

Trump signing executive order

DEVELOPING: There is chatter coming out of the White House that as early as next week Donald Trump may issue as many as 5 Executive Orders targeting US-based nonprofits and civil society organizations.

important context about the concentration camps in el salvador:

🚨 EU and U.S. officials made little progress in resolving trade disputes, Bloomberg reports. U.S. officials signaled most tariffs will stay. After a two-hour meeting, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic left unclear on U.S. goals.

Old mobile phones and keyboards. Overlaid text reads: FT Exclusive: EU issues US-bound staff with burner phones to avoid espionage

Breaking news: The European Commission is issuing burner phones and basic laptops to some US-bound staff to avoid the risk of espionage — a measure traditionally reserved for trips to China www.ft.com/content/20d0...

Sen Crapo: What is the scope of the negotiations with Japan?

Greer: Agriculture, structural impediments.

Feels like the 1980s again!

what a visual

In a Strongman State, a Trump Order Extinguishes Flickers of Freedom Cambodia’s authoritarian dynasty had silenced almost all of the country’s independent media. The remaining few are facing extinction because of an executive directive from President Trump.

'Half of the group’s annual budget of $810,000 came from American aid. The collective, called CamboJA, only has enough money to operate until June. They have stopped providing drinking water at the office to save $30 a month.'

Dark days for what little remains of the free press in Cambodia.

‘Let’s make it practical’: NATO chief eyes greater defense-industrial ties with Japan Japan and NATO plan to take their partnership to the next level by stepping up information-sharing and defense-industrial cooperation, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said.

Japan and NATO plan to take their partnership to the next level by stepping up information-sharing and defense-industrial cooperation, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told The Japan Times in an exclusive interview.

Tired: Decoupling from China

Wired: Decoupling from the United States

long excerpt from my book THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP about this being a hard time to be a parent and how you have to try anyway

"I don't remember when I started mourning the future more than the past."

-- THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

America First: neither trade nor aid for the world's poorest countries.

A suburban caveman house

Quit freaking out. Remember that in 10,000 B.C., when America had ZERO international trade, a family could afford a house like this on a single income.

Depraved

It’s worth making the point again that it was a mistake for the Biden Administration to tie themselves so closely to this guy, whose track record even before the martial law declaration should have given them deep cause for concern.

So the reason Norfolk Island copped a dramatically higher tariff than the rest of Australia is two shipments of Timbaland boots from the Bahamas and some aquarium supplies from the UK that had their point of origin mislabeled or misrecorded.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The new @iseas-singapore.bsky.social State of Southeast Asia Survey is out. As always SE Asia analysts will be poring over the data to understand the region's most pressing concerns, views of US-China rivalry, the #Myanmar conflict & much more. Some observations 🧵: www.iseas.edu.sg/wp-content/u...

image of watchmen's doctor manhattan, a superhero who is entirely blue and nude, sitting on a rock, small in frame, on what is depicted to be a very pink version of the surface of the planet mars. he looks pensive.

It is 2002. I am 18 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.

It is 2008. I am 24 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.

It is 2020. I am 36 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.

It is 2025. I am 41 years old. We are in a—

Something huge missed about Trump's #tariff announcement: by including #Taiwan as a list of countries to be tariffed, this is the most explicit U.S. government recognition of Taiwan as a country in decades.