OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.

THE ART OF THE DEAL: U.S., Ukraine Sign Minerals Deal in Major Breakthrough for Peace Talks.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials have signed a long-anticipated deal that gives the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for a promised security guarantee to protect Kyiv from future Russian aggression, signaling President Donald Trump’s commitment to ending the war.

The deal was signed Wednesday afternoon on Trump’s 100th day in office by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, as the latter visited Washington, D.C., to finalize the details. The Treasury Department confirmed the signed deal, called the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.

“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term. President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine,” Bessent said in a statement. “And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”

The minerals deal grants the U.S. access to Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas, according to Bloomberg. It also lays out details about the economic partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine.

Read the whole thing.

STAINLESS STEEL IN SPACECRAFT. AMAZING, WHERE DID THEY GET THAT IDEA? China is making stainless steel tanks for its future super heavy-lift rockets. “The 10.6-meter-diameter, 9.0-meter-high tank is part of the development of the Long March 9; a future reusable super heavy-lift rocket designed for large lunar and infrastructure missions which would transform the country’s launch capabilities. It is also being used in early mission concepts for crewed Mars missions.”

What will these creative Chinese think up next?

POP QUIZ — WHO DID TRUMP CALL ON STAGE IN MICHIGAN? The Battle for Mitch McConnell’s Senate Seat Might Get More Interesting.

CANCEL CULTURE VS. MCCARTHYISM: THE DATA IS IN — Cancel Culture is happening on a historic scale, part 5

“The best way to compare McCarthyism to Cancel Culture on campus is by finding a source of data that was gathered at the same time McCarthyism was going on, in order to compare it to the data we have today. And thankfully there was a massive 1955 study by Paul Lazarsfeld that covered the number of professors dismissed during McCarthyism. According to that data, approximately 100 professors were targeted and 62 were fired during this period, either for being communists or members of the Communist Party.

“Now, compare that figure to the number of professors who have been fired on campus since the beginning of the Age of Cancel Culture in 2014. In the last decade, FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire database has logged almost 1,300 campaigns to get scholars punished for their First Amendment-protected speech. Nearly two-thirds of those campaigns succeeded, leading to censorship, suspensions, demotions, resignations, and even mandatory administrative training (remember: this is disciplinary training in response to protected speech). But to compare things more directly: From 2014-2024 more than 200 scholars ended up being fired or forced out of their positions for their thoughts and opinions.

“That’s more than triple the contemporaneous estimate of the number of communist professors fired, and more than double the estimate of professors fired overall, during McCarthyism.”

WELCOME BACK, DAVE BARRY!

In another of his recent columns, I’m pretty sure that Dave Barry is the first person to have analogized a prostate exam with accessing Tallahassee from a backroad in Alabama.

There are times when it’s not easy to be a male. I experienced one of these times a few days ago when, within a span of 20 minutes, three different people, two of whom I had not previously met and one of whom was a member of a completely different biological sex, asked me to lower my pants so they could handle parts of my body that I will refer to here, out of respect for their privacy, as my festicles (not their real name).This happened at the office of my urologist. Like many older men, I see a urologist regularly, and I believe I speak for all of these men when I make the following urgent plea to the urology community: For the love of God, please find a way to get to the prostate gland other than the way you’re getting to it now.

When you visit your urologist, he or she always examines your prostate, which is a tricky procedure because of where it’s located. If we envision the male reproductive system as a map of Florida, the prostate would be Tallahassee. The problem is, there is no easy way to get to Tallahassee. So the current procedure is for the urologist to approach it via the back road from Alabama.

This means that the prostate examination is quite unpleasant for everyone involved.
Q. How unpleasant is it?
A. When it’s about to happen, both you and the urologist are quietly hoping for a direct meteor strike.

Like most politicians, SMOD talks a great game, but he’s never around when you actually need him.

“JUSTICE:”

This is funny.

I didn’t see temporary asst US attorney Sara Levine cry when I watched her prosecute one of the last J6 trials the week before Christmas 2024.

When Biden DOJ forced a single mom charged with 4 misdemeanors who was inside the Capitol for 9 minutes engaged in no… pic.twitter.com/e01amGskhb

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 30, 2025

HOTS ON FOR NOWHERE:

It’s an evergreen stance for the DNC-MSM whenever there’s a Republican in office. Bill Maher in August of 2019: Yes, a recession would be worth it to get rid of Trump. Earlier that same week, Fox News host Martha MacCallum said to Victor Davis Hanson,  “I was listening to a lot of different news networks this morning, as I often do…getting a read on what everybody’s saying about what’s going on and, you know, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a bit of sort of enthusiasm for the possibility that maybe the economy might tank.”

Similarly, in February of 2020, NewsBusters noted: MSNBC Hopes for ‘Global Financial Crisis’ Helping Dems in 2020.

Then in April of 2020, when the lockdowns were full swing, but a month and a half before riot season, Kurt Schlichter wrote: The Democrats Totally Want A Depression.

Way back in December of 2008, in order to position BHO as the next FDR, Virginia Postrel spotted the DNC-MSM full of “Depression Lust, and Depression Porn.”

Or as the AP “objectively” reported that summer, “Everything Seemingly is Spinning Out of Control[!]”

SOMEBODY SET US UP THE BOMB:

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record spots a key incentive for the EU to get the juice flowing again: Europe Promises To Get The Electricity Back Up ASAP So Everyone Can Hear The Muslim Calls To Prayer.

GOD AND MAN AND THE GRAY LADY: The New York Times just ran a 1,400-word story to explain what cross necklaces are.

Look at how they describe women in the Trump admin like strange creatures:

Cross necklaces have, in a way, become the jewelry of choice most associated with President Trump’s second administration.

Ms. Bondi owns several cross necklaces but most often appears at official events in a diamond-set version purchased at Mavilo, a jewelry store in Tampa, Fla.

Ms. Leavitt, the White House press secretary, has frequently worn a large cross pendant at press briefings. But Ms. Leavitt is not the first press secretary to wear a cross: Kayleigh McEnany, a press secretary during Mr. Trump’s first term, also wore one.

In an email, Ms. Leavitt, 27, called the cross necklace ‘the perfect accessory to any outfit,’ adding that she wears the cross ‘because it serves as a reminder of the strength that can only be found through faith.’

These conservative women … who can understand their strange ways??

As Rod Dreher wrote in his classic 2003 article, “The Godless Party:”

True story: I once proposed a column on some now-forgotten religious theme to the man who was at the time the city editor of the New York Post. He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “This is not a religious city,” he said, with a straight face. As it happened, the man lived in my neighborhood. To walk to the subway every morning, he had to pass in front of or close to two Catholic churches, an Episcopal church, a synagogue, a mosque, an Assemblies of God Hispanic parish, and an Iglesia Bautista Hispana. Yet this man did not see those places because he does not know anyone who attends them. It’s not that this editor despises religion; it’s that he’s too parochial (pardon the pun) to see what’s right in front of him. There’s a lot of truth in that old line attributed to the New Yorker’s Pauline Kael, who supposedly remarked, in all sincerity, “I don’t understand how Nixon won; I don’t know a soul who voted for him.”

In the main—and I’ve had this confirmed to me by Christian friends who labor elsewhere in the secular media—the men and women who bring America its news don’t necessarily hate religion; in most cases, they just believe it’s unimportant at best, menacing at worst. Because they don’t know any religious people, they think of American religion in categories that have long been outdated. For example, to hear journalists talk, Catholics are berated from the pulpit every Sunday about abortion and birth control; reporters think I’m putting them on when I tell them that I’ve been a practicing Catholic for 10 years and I’ve only heard one sermon about abortion and none about contraception. For another, outside the Jewish community, there are no stronger supporters of Israel than among American Evangelicals, and that’s been true for at least a generation. The news has yet to reach American newsrooms, where I’ve been startled to discover a general assumption among Jews and non-Jews alike that these “fundamentalists” (i.e., any Christian more conservative than a Spong-ite Episcopalian) are naturally anti-Semitic.

In a further comment, that New York Post city editor inadvertently revealed something else important to me about the way media people see religion: As far as he was concerned, Catholics and Jews were the only religious people who counted in New York City (he himself is a non-practicing Jew), because they were the only ones who had any political pull. Because journalists tend not to know religiously observant people, they see religious activity in the only way they know how—in terms of secular politics. Thus, when your average journalist hears “Southern Baptist,” she immediately thinks of an alien sect whose rustic adherents lurk in the shadows thinking of cunning ways to manipulate Republican politicians into taking away a woman’s right to choose. The trouble is, she doesn’t think much further, and it is unlikely that anyone in her professional and social circles will challenge her to do so.

 That’s a trend that’s only gotten worse in the uber-woke version of today’s Gray Lady. But between their “Gorillas in the Mist”-style takes on crosses (and religion in general), and Tim Walz’s spectacular ability to “code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck and put them at ease,” why does the modern left act like the cast of the original Star Trek whenever they had to beam down to 20^th century earth when it comes to interacting with flyover country? (Actually, I know why they do, but it’s a curious pose when it keeps losing them elections.)

Related: At about the seven minutes in, Mel Brooks as the 2,000 Year Old Man explains to Carl Reiner how the cross’s ease of manufacture helped it massively take over in popularity from the Star of David:

I WON’T BELIEVE IT UNTIL COACH STARTS SELLING IT: World’s First ‘T. Rex Leather’ Is Claimed to Come From Dino DNA. Is This For Real? If it’s not real now, it will be.

A BIG WIN FOR SCIENCE:

I'm happy to announce one of the biggest policy victories of this administration.

It's been weeks in the making, but it's finally here:

ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS CANNOT PAYWALL NIH-FUNDED RESEARCH ANY LONGER. https://t.co/sdHCWw1WcZ

— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) April 30, 2025

WOW:

I voted for this https://t.co/7DoQlAylpN

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) April 30, 2025

UPDATE (From Ed): Capt. Stillman could no doubt use some additional security at Ice Station Zebra:

WEIRD HOW THE ENTIRE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM SEEMS DESIGNED TO ENSURE THAT THEY DON’T GET IT: Just 15 Extra Minutes of Sleep Boosts Teen Brains.

I HAD MISSED THIS: A Good Day for the Navy. “Has the U.S. grown ashamed of its military victories? There are reasons to believe this is true.”

REAL CHANGE: Terraforming Mars: A Quick Q&A with … Edwin Kite and Robin Wordsworth on designing a new home beyond Earth. “As the prospect of human settlements on Mars draws closer to reality than we could have realistically imagined pre-SpaceX, so does the concept of terraforming, or shaping alien landscapes beyond Earth to suit human needs. The idea of an interplanetary species was first conceived in the 1890s. Not so long after, the idea of modifying the topography and natural resources of planets and asteroids arose as early as the 1940s, before being picked up by imaginative writers like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov.”

THE TIES THAT BIND: Ukraine says it hopes to sign U.S. minerals deal within 24 hours.

CANCEL CULTURE VS. MCCARTHYISM: THE DATA IS IN — Cancel Culture is happening on a historic scale, Part 5

CHRISTIAN ADAMS: David Horowitz Cracked the Leftist Code.

David shattered their central premise: The institutional Left – and their partners in the Democratic Party – didn’t really exist to help people like they claimed. They did not exist to do good, he said.

In reality, David Horowitz would repeat, the Left hurt people. The policies of the Left resulted in carnage – carnage on the streets, in the American family, and in the culture.  They left victims in their wake.

He insisted we stop using the term “liberals.”

“The only things they are liberal about,” he retorted, “are sex and drugs. Everything else they are totalitarian.”

The slogan that was eventually adopted at his Frontpage Website was perfect: Inside Every Liberal Is a Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out.

UGH: New York Just Took a Big Step Toward State-Sponsored Suicide.

READER FAVORITE: Toniiq Ultra High Strength 1500mg NAD+ Supplement. #CommissionEarned

NO THANKS, I’M STILL SOCIAL DISTANCING: Dems In Disarray: Meet the Sketchy, Beagle-Abusing Politician Looking to Impeach President Trump.

It speaks volumes that Rep. Shri Shanedar (D-MI) has a history that he would rather stay under wraps by keeping his head down and going about his job duties, but instead is now begging for the spotlight – seemingly uncaring about the shadow that creates.

* * * * * * * * *

But there is another deeply bothersome pockmark on his CV, a Doctor Fauci-level of scandal involving animal testing. In 2010 he ran another company, Azopharma, and it had a subsidiary testing facility in New Jersey, AniClin Preclinical Services. When Azopharma went bankrupt, it led to the abrupt closure of that testing lab. This meant that they shuttered the facility, with over 100 beagles still locked in cages, as well as dozens more lab monkeys.

 The Oxford, N.J., research facility where the dogs lived, had gone bankrupt and locked its doors. The animals’ caretakers had reportedly climbed fences to provide food and water until more solid arrangements were made.

Eventually a pair of dog rescue groups were able to get in and care for the beagles, getting them adjusted to a normal life, having never seen daylight prior or touched grass, eventually setting them up to all become adopted. Thanedar, whenever challenged on this disturbing lack of action taken for the animals’ welfare, has passed it off as something that was to be the responsibility of the bank(s) following the bankruptcy.

This is someone so focused on self-promotion that he cares little what that notoriety will uncover, and as he postures before the cameras no one in his party has thought to rein in what some have previously recognized to be a problem within their ranks. Locally he is at least rankling some Democrats. After gaining reelection, mostly due to his biggest challenger having to drop out of the primary, Thanedar is already facing a challenger for next year’s primary race.

Exit quote: “This is the type of character the Democrats have standing front and center for their party today? It is just another sign of the disarray seen from them of late, with no sign of repair on the horizon.”

Related:

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Should Your EDC Be A Throw-Away Gun? “The police are just doing their job, and one of their tasks is to collect evidence; ergo, your gun ends up in an evidence bag. Typically, the police will hold your firearm for a specified period until the investigation is completed. If you are cleared and no charges have been filed, you can expect to get your gun back. Maybe. There is no set timeframe for returning your gun to you. Every state is different. But your gun will be logged as evidence.”

WELL, GOOD: IBM Rolls Back DEI, Commits To Political Neutrality. “IBM’s track record on corporate bias and activism is notorious. The company was a member of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a group created by the World Federation of Advertisers that worked to keep ad revenue away from conservative news sites like the Daily Wire to free speech-centric platforms like X. And that’s before all the DEI concerns surfaced. After IBM CEO Arvind Krishna was caught on a hot mic discussing how the company uses quotas of ‘underrepresented’ minorities in determining their executive pay — in Krishna’s words, execs have ‘got to move both [race and gender] forward by a percentage point’ in order to get a higher bonus. That means DEI. That means quotas. Following these snafus, the reputational, ethical, and (in the case of the Missouri AG who sued IBM) legal scrutiny was swift in coming.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What Is Going on With the Virginia GOP?!