AN ULTIMATUM WAS JUST GIVEN TEETH: Trump’s Latest Move Ought to Keep Iran up at Night.
Archive for 2025
April 1, 2025
A BADLY NEEDED WAKE-UP CALL TO COLLEGE PRESIDENTS: “Forget what happened during Trump 1.0. Things are very different this time around. Those calling the shots have concluded that Democrats are going to keep running the Obama-Biden playbook, so the only recourse is to respond in kind—that anything else is akin to unilateral disarmament.”
As I said in an unexpectedly popular X thread yesterday, places like Columbia are headed for bankruptcy and destruction unless they start dramatically changing their behavior, right now.
A FRIEND COMMENTS: “The lopsided nature of our media culture is well-revealed by the lack of puff stories on Susie Wiles as the first female chief of staff. If she served a Democrat president, she’d be in People and Us Weekly, and all the other big magazines read predominantly by women. We’d see her home, her clothing, her family members, etc. Lots of questions about breaking the glass ceiling, being at the center of power. Instead, we see virtually none of that.”
WAIT, THIS ISN’T AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE?: “U Portland theology majors no longer have to take ‘Biblical Texts’–can take ‘queer’ class instead.“
NO WONDER THE LEFT IS ABSOLUTELY FREAKING OUT: Between Tom Jones’ American Accountability Foundation (AAF) and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the roots of the Administrative State’s power in personnel and corruption in spending are being exposed like never before, as I explain in my latest PJMedia column.
ANYTHING THE LEFT CAN’T CONTROL IT WILL TRY TO DESTROY AND WHAT IT CAN’T DESTROY IT WILL SMEAR: Anti-Musk Message Taking Its Toll. “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters view Musk favorably – down slightly from 48% earlier this month – including 28% with a Very Favorable impression. Fifty percent (50%) now view Musk unfavorably, including 41% with a Very Unfavorable opinion of the tech mogul tapped by President Donald Trump to lead DOGE.”
THE PROBLEM WITH NEWS ON APRIL 1ST: The Atlantic Caught Pushing Another Anti-Trump Hoax Story.
So much looks like an April Fool’s joke. I don’t think this one is.
IT’S BEEN SO LONG, I WONDER IF IT EVER WAS: I’m Almost Wistful for the Days of Principled, Functional Political Opposition.
NAVAL NEWS: New U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier To Be Named USS Musk.
BUTCH WILMORE: Boeing Capsule ‘Most Robust’ in NASA Inventory.
Butch Wilmore, one of two US astronauts trapped in orbit for roughly nine months, defended the performance and future of the Boeing Co. craft that caused their prolonged trip.
“I don’t want to point fingers. I hope nobody wants to point fingers,” Wilmore told Fox News in a recorded interview that aired Monday. “We don’t want to look back and say, ‘shame, shame, shame.’ We want to look forward and say, ‘Let’s rectify what we’ve learned,’ and ‘let’s make the future even more productive and better.’”
Wilmore added: Boeing’s Starliner craft is “the most robust spacecraft we have in the inventory.”
I’m not going to dispute Wilmore’s expertise but I do have to ask, “By what measure?”
UPDATE (Charlie): What other spacecraft do we have in inventory?
I’m sure that caring about those things is somehow white supremacy or something.
ANYONE ELSE SICK OF DC JOURNOS MAKING BANK SELLING STALE GOSSIP AS NEWS? Stop the Presses: Joe Biden Had ‘Frailties’ Even BEFORE That Debate!
PROMISE KEPT: Trump Sends More Migrants to El Salvador Prison.
The group was made up of “violent criminals” who were members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s MS-13 gangs, Rubio wrote on X, describing them as “murderers and rapists.” The Pentagon described the operation as a “successful counterterrorism mission.”
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele touted the “joint military operation” between the two countries in a video set to cinematic music, showing the deportees being forcefully taken off the plane and transported to the maximum-security prison, where their heads were shaved and they were locked up in cells.
This is the second time the government has sent Venezuelans who it claims are members of the violent street gang to the sprawling prison built by Bukele as part of his crackdown on the country’s gangs. Built to house 40,000 inmates, it’s considered the largest prison in the world, and approximately 15,000 accused Salvadoran gang members were being held there before the U.S. deportees arrived.
Fill’er up.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Your Friendly Reminder That There Are No Grassroots Efforts on the Left. “I’ve been a conservative activist for over four decades and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an organic protest from the left. I won’t unequivocally declare that I haven’t, but I can’t point to any of the ones I remember and say they weren’t astroturfed.”
DON’T FALL FOR IT [VIP]: Fukushima Follies and the Yellow (Journalism) Peril.
Don’t fall for the yellow press. Falling for a VIP subscription is good. Add promo code FIGHT for a 60 percent discount.
HMM: China delays $23B sale of Panama Canal ports to US-backed consortium led by BlackRock.
On March 4, CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate controlled by 96-year-old billionaire Li Ka-shing, announced plans to sell 43 port facilities globally — including critical ports at both ends of the Panama Canal and near the Suez Canal — for approximately $22.8 billion.
But China’s State Administration for Market Regulation unexpectedly initiated an investigation on Friday into potential violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws, effectively stalling the deal.
China President Xi Jinping is reportedly “angry” over CK Hutchison’s plans to sell its Panama Canal port operations — particularly because the company did not consult Beijing beforehand, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deal — spearheaded by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, a longtime Trump confidante — called for an agreement to be signed by April 2, though it now is likely that the Wednesday deadline will be missed.
Now that we’re finished kowtowing, what’s the Mandarin for foot-dragging?
CDR SALAMANDER: No, European Strategic Autonomy Drive is not Trump Related.
DENIAL OF THAT REALITY IS THE WHOLE POINT:
the funniest part is that you just know these lessons are going to be modeled on the near-mythological "white boy who plays too much COD and loves Andrew Tate" rather than the far more common UK archetype: "Pakistani boy who was raised from birth to think all women are whores" https://t.co/2m1U56IZF0
— pagliacci the hated 🌝 (@Slatzism) April 1, 2025
AFTER ALL, IT WAS YOU AND ME: Michael Walsh: Who Killed JFK?
FLASHBACK: Remembering the 2002 AOL/InstaPundit merger April Fool. The only April Fool I’ve done here, and probably the only one I ever will do, but it was fun — complete with a changed header to AOL/InstaPundit — and a surprising number of people bought it.
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Beats Solo 4 – Wireless Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones. #CommissionEarned
#JOURNALISM:
I can't believe my eyes. Lesley Stahl had the audacity to ask a Jewish hostage, who was tortured and starved by Hamas, if Hamas really meant to starve him or if they just didn't have enough food.
Is this a joke? How the hell can she even ask him that?pic.twitter.com/utofSTtbk8
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) March 31, 2025