Former tech guy. Writer. Standing somewhere. A circus, perhaps. From here, this is what I see. Observations here: http://notesfromthecircus.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml7s24dag22cI consider myself a classical liberal, if that is to mean a liberal in the classic tradition. And I resent that market fundamentalist libertarians using classical liberal as a synonym for minimal state involvement in economic affairs.06 May 2026 22:51 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml7s24dag22chttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml6wloljg22eTrump tore up a 159-page nuclear agreement, started a war over the consequences, killed Spirit Airlines and an unknown number of Iranian children, and is now ending it with a one-page memorandum he is calling already legendary. Many Americans still believe he is a master dealmaker. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/already-legendary06 May 2026 14:39 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml6wloljg22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml56wht4yk23Why would people want to have children in the world of the GOP? https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-party-that-hates-children05 May 2026 22:03 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml56wht4yk23https://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml4p2ppfpc2mIt reflects so poorly on us that we collectively permit this to go on. We are morally failing the world and ourselves. This stain will not come out of the cloth of our nation's dignity for a long time. [contains quote post or other embedded content]05 May 2026 17:19 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml4p2ppfpc2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml2cbigtqc2wFor the record: I think Shannon Watts is a very stupid person.04 May 2026 18:25 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml2cbigtqc2whttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3ml23nwi4bs22The Graham Platner is a Nazi strategy was designed for a target who would not defend himself. Platner refuses to stay off-screen. He sits for Pod Save, for Stewart, for local press. He answers questions. A Crisis Dispatch. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-target-just-keeps-showing-up04 May 2026 16:27 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml23nwi4bs22https://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkygpuaj3c2jI am going on the record with my formal opinion: Graham Platner is not a Nazi. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/graham-platner-is-not-a-nazi04 May 2026 00:39 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkygpuaj3c2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkyantz2mc2aAnd the worst is yet to come! [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 May 2026 22:51 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkyantz2mc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkxyzp63zk2oMy discussion with Lyn Alden on the future of money and macroeconomics. If you’re interested in money and economics, I think you will find it worth your ninety minutes. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/is-bitcoin-the-future-a-niche-or03 May 2026 20:34 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkxyzp63zk2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkxiwodykk2zIt's really quite something how the Vichy Republican establishment has deluded itself into thinking Marco Rubio will be their post-Trump savior. They are unable to process the fall in status they are about to endure.03 May 2026 15:46 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkxiwodykk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkw2k76tas2fI support the impeachment of Chief Justice Roberts! https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-industrys-court-in-a-stolen-republic03 May 2026 01:56 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkw2k76tas2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkvupehcnc26I dislike how the executive branch just lies to me and my fellow citizens with reckless abandon, the oil-industry captured Supreme Court insists on their prerogative to go on lying to me, and the Congress that's supposed to represent me does nothing about any of this.03 May 2026 00:12 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkvupehcnc26https://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkvhlw66ps2tWow. Jonah Goldberg and Tyler A Harper had such an amazing conversation that delighted me, that I just had to go and provide it some light critique. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/humes-side-of-the-argument02 May 2026 20:17 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkvhlw66ps2thttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkvaocyap22yI have started and stopped writing a piece to respond to Richard Dawkins' thoughts on consciousness that grew out of his interactions with Claude's chatbot in UnHerd. But the TLDR of my take-away is that he needs to take some psychedelic drugs.02 May 2026 18:13 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkvaocyap22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkv5ffppus2qSpirit Airlines ceased operations last night. The CEO named the cause in plain language: doubled jet fuel prices, smaller cash pile to start with. The doubling came from the Strait of Hormuz closure. The closure came from Trump's unauthorized war on Iran.02 May 2026 17:15 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkv5ffppus2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkuwyyt5u224A government that calls itself pro-business has confused itself with the contents of its own framework. The confusion is the corruption. The corruption is what the announcement is. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/no-government-should-not-be-pro-business02 May 2026 15:20 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkuwyyt5u224https://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mktwxln6q22gLook, I’m not—in principle—against the notion of worker solidarity. I recognize what today is and I made no mention of it until the day was almost gone by. But here’s the thing: I’m not a materialist. 1/302 May 2026 05:47 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mktwxln6q22ghttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mktsqz6eek2tIt's really quite something that so many of these tech leaders think they understand the universe. It's an insane decrepit epistemic object that millions of people on the internet came to believe the self-delusions of a bunch of tech investors and CEOs.02 May 2026 04:32 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mktsqz6eek2thttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mktinujrz22gThe people do have representatives in the structure of the Madisonian system we have to remove these corrupt men from power. But it seems we've sent corrupt people to represent us. And that presents some challenges. [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 May 2026 01:31 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mktinujrz22ghttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mktbtbgmks2gMr. Jabbour, I regret to inform you that I am unable to join the Department of Justice in their celebration today because I have observed, among other things, that the institution in question is corrupt instrument that treats law as a weapon against the people it's supposed to protect. [contains quote post or other embedded content]01 May 2026 23:29 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mktbtbgmks2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mks6ppdbn22eI argued against monarchy in Las Vegas on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a king walked into the U.S. Capitol and defended the American constitutional tradition more fluently than the man currently sworn to uphold it. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-bell01 May 2026 13:00 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mks6ppdbn22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkqgw2k3mk2mOn Tuesday I debated Curtis Yarvin in Vegas on whether liberal democracy should be replaced by a sovereign corporation. On Wednesday, King Charles III stood in the U.S. Capitol and modeled what an American president is supposed to be. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-bell30 Apr 2026 20:22 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkqgw2k3mk2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mko4yt5zls2gMatt Welch told me at a party he was a romantic. I don't believe him. What The Fifth Column's post-WHCD-shooting episode actually was — and what a decade of brand maintenance costs at scale. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/i-dont-believe-him29 Apr 2026 22:19 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mko4yt5zls2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mklnzxm7322eMy debate with Yarvin. youtu.be/JfvCw9dJXLQ https://youtu.be/JfvCw9dJXLQ28 Apr 2026 22:46 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mklnzxm7322ehttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkiyyuguek22Being asked to “disavow” Cole Allen suggests that I ever avowed him. I never considered him part of my tribe. I didn’t know him and I’m not a tribalist. So what a strange thing to ask me to do. https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-ritual27 Apr 2026 21:24 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkiyyuguek22https://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkhbbllib22sIt feels like we are living through the Death of Stalin, the final days of Hitler and the end of the Coolidge Prosperity all at the same time.27 Apr 2026 04:47 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkhbbllib22shttps://bsky.app/profile/brockm.bsky.social/post/3mkhac3nmac2sWell, look on the bright side: all the conspiratorial brains among us have turned now against the fascists. Trump’s hold on their psychic gyrations has been broken. Small victories.27 Apr 2026 04:29 +0000at://did:plc:lsz27iba6myqfhatwihmyfzz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkhac3nmac2s