KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I’m Always Going to Be a Big Fan of Sticking It to China. “Beltway Tariff Theater continues to dominate the news. There is plenty of other stuff going on, but none of it is as gripping as watching President Trump continue to do president stuff that we’re not familiar with, especially the whole ‘carry out campaign promises’ thing.”
Archive for 2025
April 10, 2025
DON SURBER: World cheers Trump’s 10% tariff: On Wednesday, he created Wall Street’s biggest day in 24 years. “Watching the Trump’s Tariff War from afar, I find it hilarious. He has managed in the past week to get the world to accept a 10% tariff on everything while triggering Red China to engage in an actual tariff war that is financially suicidal for the communist regime. The headline from Never Trumpland was ‘Trump Caves on Tariffs After Insisting They Were Essential.’ These clowns must work for minimum wage because their negotiating skills are nonexistent.”
CDR SALAMANDER: All Hail the First of Hopefully Many Maritime Focused Executive Orders. “Time is of the essence.”
SLOUCHING TOWARD WORLD WAR III: China denies significant numbers of its citizens are fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for the war, according to a U.S. assessment last year.
The Kremlin has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting in Ukraine. The Kyiv government has consented to it. Both sides are believed to be readying spring-summer military campaigns.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing that China has played a “constructive role in politically resolving the Ukraine crisis.”
Lin told a daily news briefing Wednesday that “the Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”
His comments appeared to indicate that the captured Chinese had joined Russia’s ranks on their own initiative. Both Russia and Ukraine allow foreign soldiers to enlist.
North Korea remains less circumspect: North Korea has sent 3,000 more soldiers to bolster Russia’s war on Ukraine, South Korea says.
A DESPERATE PLEA FOR SANITY: CAN WE PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT 2028 ALREADY???
CHRIS BRAY: Eisgruber Pretends (But Arguments Work Better When They’re True).
On NPR this week — the broadcast version of The Atlantic, the place for utterly conventional thought from people who are always wrong — a deeply concerned interviewer sat down with the president of Princeton University, Christopher Eisgruber, to talk about the vicious monster Trump’s anti-intellectual assault on the modern research university. The discussion became quaint immediately, as Eisgruber spooled out a depiction of the university as a great citadel of knowledge, a castle of wisdom where disinterested experts fearlessly seek out only the purest expressions of truth, striving selflessly as servants to the people . . . Actual research: How lesbians feel about Dawson’s Creek. Universities have been hollowed out, are being hollowed out, and have been politicized. You can’t set foot on a campus and not see the centrality of left-focused activism to academic culture. Which is fine, to a point, and everybody gets to believe what they want to believe, although part two of that argument is that no one has a right to other people’s money. But for crying out loud, don’t pretend that academia is an open culture engaged in a disinterested pursuit of truth, and don’t pretend that suddenly — suddenly, for the first time ever! — Donald Trump is politicizing the modern American university. The modern American university is politicized. We know. It’s kind of not that hard to figure out.
And he has the poster.
KENNEDY CENTER BREAKS ALL-TIME ATTENDANCE RECORD AMID LIBERAL BELLYACHING OVER ‘TRUMP TAKEOVER:’
The Kennedy Center broke its all-time attendance record for a public event March 29, with over 11,000 attendees for the EARTH to SPACE: Arts Breaking the Sky fireworks show, the Daily Caller has exclusively learned.
The history-making moment was celebrated amid a flurry of criticism from liberals about President Donald Trump’s takeover of the entertainment facility. Critics voiced concerns about Trump’s understanding and appreciation for the arts when he took control of the Kennedy Center. However, attendance numbers have told a different story. With a focus on shifting away from politically-charged programming, the facility experienced tremendous success with a widely-attended fireworks show.
* * * * * * * *
Trump named conservative firebrand Richard Grenell as the president of the Kennedy Center amid a series of moves designed to strengthen Trump’s grip on the performing arts center.
Based on the photos, the change seems to be going just fine; Ben Folds hardest hit.
WHO SAID THERE WAS JUST ONE? Who was the ‘decider’ within the Biden White House?
Mr. Klain, like others in Mr. Biden’s inner circle, urged him to run for a second term, knowing he wasn’t capable of serving. They and their allies in the media covered up his true condition and assured his party’s leaders and voters that he was up to the job and could win a second term. Even after the debate that would end Mr. Biden’s candidacy, Mr. Klain told Mr. Whipple that he believed Mr. Biden should have stayed in the race and could have defeated Mr. Trump.
Mr. Klain’s account confirms that Democratic operatives were planning to run Mr. Biden for a second term, in a disservice to the man they worked for and in betraying the duty they owed their country. Many justified their actions after the election by claiming they thought Mr. Biden, unlike Vice President Kamala Harris, would have defeated Mr. Trump.
That rationale pales compared with the constitutional negligence of the Biden administration. White House staff, the Cabinet and all their immediate staff, and mainstream media were aware that Mr. Biden had checked out, leaving the decisions he should have made in the hands of staffers and underlings. Being a White House staffer is a heady rush, but staffers must have been wildly elated not to have anyone nix their whims, say to draft an executive order and ship it off to the autopen. That they no doubt didn’t want to end might be understandable if the country were not at stake. They persuaded themselves to let the good times roll for another four years if they could prop up the boss for another run. After all, he won the race in 2020 from his basement.
My guess is that some days it was Klain, sometimes Jill Biden, Obama working the phones behind the scenes, etc. And on other days it was a scene out of “Veep,” with staffers fighting over the autopen to push their individual agendas.
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Carhartt Men’s Loose Fit Heavyweight Short-Sleeve Pocket T-Shirt. #CommissionEarned
THE ONLY REAL WEALTH IS HUMANS: Man-Hours.
FAT CHANCE: Macron Should Be a Statesman and Pardon Le Pen.
THE ROT RUNS DEEP AND WIDE: Rubio Exposes Leftist Agenda and Corruption of USAID Programs.
#CommissionEarned
An optimistic collection of six stories revolving around leaving Earth, or living (and making a living) further out in the solar system.
Xanadu–Sometimes, making a profit just needs an outside perspective for why it hasn’t yet.
Turing’s Legacy–It takes love to make a person. And maybe an accident.
Theory in Practice–Psychological care may well be more important in a closed environment.
Reasonable Accommodations–Microgravity could be an answer to some disabilities.
You Can’t Go Home Again–The effects of long-term isolation on asteroid miners explored.
Everyday Miracles–What could push someone to emigrate to a new off-planet colony?
TRUE:
Any nation that can’t transport thousands of drones across oceans – and can’t reload and refuel them with sealift – won’t just fall behind, it’ll vanish from the battlefield. Logistics wins wars. https://t.co/HP9SsgCXvE
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) April 7, 2025
THAT’S APPROPRIATE, GIVEN KAMALA WAS AN INCOHENT, DERANGED CANDIDATE: MSNBC Guest Goes on Incoherent, Deranged Rant on Why Kamala Harris Lost.
TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Would Secretary Mayorkas Do What Kristi Noem Just Did to an Illegal Alien?
THIS IS A MASSIVE PROBLEM: The Media is Calling the Shots in the Tariff War.
DANGEROUS BUT NEEDED: Traversing Narrow Channels.
LET’S NOT. NEXT YEAR IS OUR 250TH ANNIVERSARY. LET’S CELEBRATE OUR PAST: A grand piece of American history is soon to be destroyed — shall America’s greatest ship be condemned to the depths?