Barackface: 30: China

Owners of small businesses are, on average, a strongly right-leaning group. Indeed, along with white Christian nationalists, they are one of the core components of the MAGA base. And small business owners celebrated Donald Trump’s victory last fall. Small business optimism, as measured by the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ monthly survey, soared after the election: ............ 2025 was a miserable year for small business — and 2026 will be worse. ............. Small-business owners tend to be disdainful of government, yet in many cases they and their employees depend in crucial ways on government programs. In particular, almost half of the adults receiving health insurance via the government-run exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — either own or work for small businesses. ....... However, the cost of buying insurance on these exchanges has more than doubled on average since a year ago, because Trump and his party have refused to extend enhanced subsidies enacted under the Biden administration. As a result, many small business owners are in the process of finding out that they can no longer afford health insurance for their employees — or, in many cases, themselves. ........... In short, small business placed its faith in Trump but has been betrayed. But then, that’s what has happened to everyone who trusted Trump, from farmers to blue-collar workers — everyone, that is, except for the tech billionaires who have bought their way into his inner circle.

If one word could summarize the ideology of the second Trump regime, it would be “hate.” ......... Before his nomination, Ingrassia reportedly told a group of fellow Republicans that “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.” ........... He has written about former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: “Never trust a chinaman or Indian … NEVER.” ............ He has said Black people behave like “victims” because “that’s their natural state … You can’t change them,” adding: “Proof: all of Africa is a shithole, and will always be that way.” ............ He has urged that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.” Using an Italian slur for Black people, he wrote: “No moulignon holidays … From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,” adding: “Every single one needs to be eviscerated.” .......... He has written: “We need competent white men in positions of leadership. … The founding fathers were wrong that all men are created equal … We need to reject that part of our heritage.” ............. He has backed martial law. He’s referred to 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley as an “insufferable bitch.” He called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel a “psyop,” (which stands for psychological operation). ............ He has ties to avowed antisemite Nick Fuentes. Soon after he made the “Nazi” comment, Ingrassia attended a rally for Fuentes. .......... Ingrassia’s overt bigotry was too much even for Senate Republicans, who pushed back against his nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel— resulting in Trump pulling the nomination in November. ............ But Ingrassia wasn’t booted from the Trump administration. In fact, after pulling his nomination, Trump invited Ingrassia to meet with him at the White House and offered him another administration post — Deputy General Counsel of the General Services Administration. He is now Acting General Counsel, supervising more than one hundred lawyers. ............ Trump doesn’t mind Ingrassia’s bigotry because Ingrassia is a Trump loyalist who for years has praised Trump on X and Substack. (After Trump reposted more than 100 of Igrassia’s fawning Substacks, Ingrassia called himself “Trump’s favorite writer.”) ............ ............ In Trump world, fawning loyalty always trumps hateful bigotry. ......... In contrast to Trump’s graciousness toward Ingrassia, the Trump regime has been trying to rid America of people seeking to stop the spread of online hate speech. .............. On Thursday, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked Trump from detaining Imran Ahmed, the founder and chief executive of a nonprofit organization that works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation, whom the Trump regime accused of promoting the censoring of “American viewpoints.” ........ Ahmed — who is in the United States legally, with a green card and an American wife and child — is one of five people barred by the Trump regime because they’ve been scrutinizing hate speech on social media platforms such as Elon Musk’s X. .......... Musk had unsuccessfully tried to sue Ahmed’s research group in 2023 when it documented a rise in hate speech on X after Musk bought the platform, then called Twitter. When Trump’s State Department barred Ahmed from America, Musk posted “This is so great.” ............. Hate is the defining ideology of the Trump regime.

Six Weeks From Zero (novel)
The Dawn Beyond Currency (Part 1) (novel)
The Dawn Beyond Currency (Part 2) (novel)
The Great Subcontinent Uprising (Part 1) (novel)
The Great Subcontinent Uprising (Part 2) (novel)
The Great Subcontinent Uprising (novel)
The Banyan Revolt (novel)
Gen Z Kranti (novel)
The Protocol of Greatness (novel)
Madhya York: The Merchant and the Mystic (novel)
The Garden Of Last Debates (novel)
The Drum Report: Markets, Tariffs, and the Man in the Basement (novel)
Trump’s Default: The Mist Of Empire (novel)
Deported (novel)
Empty Country (novel)
Poetry Thursdays (novel)

linkedin drove 2x the amount of traffic to my newsletter this year than twitter and instagram combined
— Rachel Karten (@milkkarten) December 29, 2025

21 years ago and 13 years ago, two dropouts in this same room set out on their own journeys. Today, those paths merge. https://t.co/NpnNkqhuso pic.twitter.com/s6v7kDsq1y
— Yichao 'Peak' Ji (@peakji) December 29, 2025

2026 is going to be my “Alpha School” year where I go back and learn any core stem fundamentals I didn’t master in school.

Things that have felt hard to grasp bc I may have missed a day when I was sick in 7th grade and never caught up.

Electrical engineering, some concepts in…
— Tara Viswanathan (@TaraViswanathan) December 30, 2025

Manus AI ($100M+ ARR in 8 months) is getting ACQUIRED by Meta

Interesting...Meta is betting big on AI agents. https://t.co/y7EuTpxUh1
— GREG ISENBERG (@gregisenberg) December 29, 2025

18 months ago, I decided to join with @Red_Xiao_ and @peakji on my sofa. No one knew where it would lead. We just kept building, pivoting, and shipping—again and again—until now.
Grateful to our team and every user who believed early. Day 1 isn’t over. We’ll keep shipping.… https://t.co/UQNslGXABI pic.twitter.com/bdpCWOJPZt
— hidecloud (@hidecloud) December 29, 2025

With FSD & Optimus, you will be able to retain your freedom well into later life
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 29, 2025

Wanna team up?
AI + Marketing = A Solara https://t.co/clyBfdaqb7 #pleaseinvest
Pitching Shruti Gandhi For A Solara https://t.co/JTmADVPIkj
Pitching Neil Patel To Come In As A Co-Founder https://t.co/JyeMAB6mxn
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

Timeline for launch to funding to $100M ARR to big exit:

SaaS era = 10 years

AI era = 10 months
— Matt Turck (@mattturck) December 30, 2025

Meta just bought Manus for >$1B and it makes sense. ~8 Consumer AI apps hit $100M+ arr that aren’t big labs:

Perplexity: $20B
ElevenLabs: $6.6B
Lovable: $6.6B
Replit: $3B+
Suno: $2.5B
Gamma: $2.1B
Character: $1B+
Manus: $500M

Meta AI has ~no product. This was the cheapest, and… pic.twitter.com/xdBwIkopzM
— Deedy (@deedydas) December 30, 2025

Please check DM @denk_tweets You will find a better marketer.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

You will NOT find a better marketer.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

AI + Marketing = A Solara https://t.co/clyBfdaqb7 #pleaseinvest
Pitching Shruti Gandhi For A Solara https://t.co/JTmADVPIkj
Pitching Neil Patel To Come In As A Co-Founder https://t.co/JyeMAB6mxn
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

This is a $400-500k income - FIRST YEAR

Brokering, if you are good at it, is the highest paid, lowest risk career ever.
Add to that the lowest barrier to entry.

Why am I not brokering again? :) https://t.co/jq3KDADG4s
— Shawn Gorham (@shawngorham) December 29, 2025

The market dynamics in AI are insane: huge capital and power needs meets rapid consumer adoption meets huge potential economic and social impact meets geographic competition at scale. pic.twitter.com/Dovn0IC6VC
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) December 30, 2025

Yes https://t.co/S4KDHQhaKU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2025

Seems likely Benchmark returned its $425 million 1.5 year-old fund with the Manus acquisition.

A lot of folks had written Benchmark off: small fund, not as out there, smaller partnership.
— Sam Gerstenzang (@gerstenzang) December 29, 2025

Wow! @ManusAI joining @Meta is big news! For the first time, I've just become bullish on @AIatMeta, as Manus has been one of my favorite AI platforms since their early days. It’s really amazing! This is a smart move by Meta! Although I hope the Manus team continues to improve it. https://t.co/R6yTVTiJB5
— Derya Unutmaz, MD (@DeryaTR_) December 29, 2025

move to shenzhen, start a robotics company.
— Mustafa (@oprydai) December 29, 2025

There’s never been an underlying substrate in tech that both improves in capability and drops in cost on a task-specific basis as rapidly as AI does.

In the next year because of underlying model improvements, AI agents will: handle much longer running tasks; deal much better… https://t.co/Ewkdj2MXIt
— Aaron Levie (@levie) December 30, 2025

Every unicorn started as someone's 'ridiculous idea'.

Founders have this impossible mandate: convince brilliant people to trade safety for a statistical improbability.

Without logic, without funding, without proof... just pure conviction in something that doesn't yet exist.… pic.twitter.com/cDV13hX2fp
— Grant Lee (@thisisgrantlee) December 29, 2025

🏆 https://t.co/6XzgwCXdsN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2025

Thrilled to share that https://t.co/YqAPigcvLy is set to be the first AI-native LLM company to list on the global market.

We couldn't have reached this point without the developers, researchers, and users who believed in our vision from Day 1. This moment belongs to YOU as much… pic.twitter.com/30yTS2Clcy
— Zixuan Li (@ZixuanLi_) December 30, 2025

A 2T Cut https://t.co/0dstvf42WG
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

Woah didn’t expect the year to end with Meta acquiring Manus

“Meta to acquire Chinese startup Manus to boost advanced AI features”

The sum is undisclosed but is rumored to be $4-5Bn (??) as the co was supposedly fundraising at $2Bn before the offer

I’m just quoting Chinese…
— Rui Ma (@ruima) December 30, 2025

🎯 https://t.co/zw3hUAK3oe
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) December 28, 2025

Congrats.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

And now invest.
AI + Marketing = A Solara https://t.co/clyBfdaqb7 #pleaseinvest
Pitching Shruti Gandhi For A Solara https://t.co/JTmADVPIkj
Pitching Neil Patel To Come In As A Co-Founder https://t.co/JyeMAB6mxn
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

Congrats @Red_Xiao_ @peakji @hidecloud , the whole @ManusAI team and @benchmark on the epic exit!

Record setting.
— Lin Qiao (@lqiao) December 29, 2025

"This catch unlocks the solar system."

Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/qQStRBipmp
— Lacey (@LaceyPresley) December 29, 2025

Leering?
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

Even requiring a tiny amount of work for fraudulent payments would have a massive positive effect.

That’s how insanely awful the level of fraud actually is! https://t.co/TIWeFi8eQ5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2025

30-30-30-10: A Better Equity Formula For Tech Startups https://t.co/lEZhcUmxu2
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

The long term advantage of $TSLA is its manufacturing technology. This is not something you can order from a catalog. It’s been built from the ground up, through yrs of iteration and learnings. Tesla is #1 at building the machine that builds the machine. pic.twitter.com/AFt7iS5VSq
— Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) December 29, 2025

Then why are not the costs coming down?
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

DeepSeek was a side project at High-Flyer Quant.
Qwen was a side project at Alibaba.
Twitter was a side project at Odeo.
Mac was a side project at Apple.

Meanwhile:
Windows Phone was a core project at Microsoft.
Metaverse was a core project at Facebook.
Google Glass was a core… https://t.co/Sqzqc8ZMLl
— Yuchen Jin (@Yuchenj_UW) December 29, 2025

Matt is an incredible executive & leader, worth every second (& then some) https://t.co/mSMdjebIYc
— Everett Randle (@EverettRandle) December 29, 2025

can someone explain why meta bought manus?

what’s the one pager for zuck other than “we have a fuck ton of money so why not”?
— signüll (@signulll) December 30, 2025

Over Christmas, friends and family asked what they should do to "prepare for AI."

My honest answer: do things that remind you what it feels like to think slowly. It's kind of the most un-AI thing to do, and very human in how leisurely it feels.

Read a book. Watch a full movie.…
— Raiza Martin (@raizamrtn) December 29, 2025

Maybe they should stop saying smart things.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

holy shit it’s real https://t.co/jlueK19cVI pic.twitter.com/w2Ojb30YpD
— Rhys (@RhysSullivan) December 29, 2025

Elon personally has more children than the entire Minneapolis Somali daycare system
— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) December 29, 2025

How to be ultra-rich

1) avoid dividends & cap gains realization by reinvesting profit in owned firms

2) then use holding companies or take out loans using shares as collateral to fund lavish lifestyle and invest in more ventures, avoiding income taxation

Insane system https://t.co/2y3pW98t3H
— Jake M. Grumbach (@JakeMGrumbach) December 29, 2025

Your job as a startup founder is mostly just putting out old and new fires without letting them slow you down.
— Andrew Gazdecki (@agazdecki) December 29, 2025

Long time no see. #algorithm
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

What we learned in 2025: the socialist & communists have enabled large-scale fraud via compassionate social services, while demanding the Government [ checks notes ] seize the assets of top Americans to [ checks notes again ] perpetuate the fraud!

F. That.

Audit everything https://t.co/qV4IDI49pq
— @jason (@Jason) December 29, 2025

First wave of AI: know it all
Second wave of AI: do it all
— Guillermo Rauch (@rauchg) December 28, 2025

Marc Andreessen on why hiring executives from the outside is riskier than it looks.@pmarca pic.twitter.com/LPJYlz5RTi
— a16z (@a16z) December 29, 2025

Founders: Every enterprise deal needs three closes:

1. Technical win (product fit)
2. Business win (ROI/value)
3. Procurement win (terms/price)

Skip one, watch deals stall at the finish line.
— Peter Kazanjy (@Kazanjy) December 29, 2025

YC has a co-founder matching platform.

𝗧𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀!:
• Sequin found their technical co-founder through it, got into YC
• Kiwi Biosciences found their business co-founder, got into YC
• Platform attracts serious founders with clear goals… pic.twitter.com/ylUFKFBgFB
— Gabriel Jarrosson (@GJarrosson) December 29, 2025

My 2025 wrapped

• Built and launched my first SaaS to $300,000 ARR w/ Claude Code. Built completely by myself. 0 lines of code written

• Grew a vibe coding YouTube channel from 1,000 subs to 60,000 subs

• Vibe coded for 2,639 hours

• Built and launched the world’s first…
— Alex Finn (@AlexFinn) December 30, 2025

AI + Marketing = A Solara https://t.co/clyBfdaqb7 #pleaseinvest
Pitching Shruti Gandhi For A Solara https://t.co/JTmADVPIkj
Pitching Neil Patel To Come In As A Co-Founder https://t.co/JyeMAB6mxn
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

The next time you want to give up, remember Elon Musk sat here after losing $100 million.

This photo shows Elon Musk right after his third rocket exploded. He had just lost $100 million of his own money. SpaceX was weeks from bankruptcy, Tesla was struggling, and he was sleeping… pic.twitter.com/TDpkq1duw4
— SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) December 29, 2025

Claude Code was a side project at Anthropic.
ChatGPT was a side project at OpenAI.
PyTorch was a side project at Meta.
Gmail was a side project at Google.

Side projects are the only place where taste, curiosity, and agency fully compound.
— Yuchen Jin (@Yuchenj_UW) December 28, 2025

This is a 9 month old company, even the founders haven't vested 💀 https://t.co/0j98bdkNJC
— Timothy Luong (Chongz) (@chongz) December 29, 2025

Our team at @a16z consumer sat down for a 45 minute conversation on the "State of Play" in AI.

Which labs are winning consumer? What product launches soared (and flopped) this year? Where are the opportunities for startups?

I fed the transcript to NotebookLM and made slides 👇 pic.twitter.com/D0RK5wKLxT
— Justine Moore (@venturetwins) December 29, 2025

Impressed with what NotebookLM did here.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 30, 2025

Correct.

My Tesla and SpaceX shares, which are almost all my “wealth”, only go up in value as a function of how much useful product those companies produce and service.

This means my “wealth” can only increase due to producing more products and services for the public.… https://t.co/F7fgdQO4no
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2025

Congrats @Tesla team on making 9M cars! https://t.co/rkPIAyzZMA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2025

Only start up if you have no other choice.

Six years ago, when I returned to Finland from San Francisco, I started working out of Maria 01, the largest startup hub in the Nordics.

Coming from the intense Bay Area scene, I was surprised by how relaxed everyone was. These…
— Tuomas Artman (@artman) December 30, 2025

Barackface

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Tuesday, December 30, 2025

30: China

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