Archive for 2025
April 18, 2025
IT’S A GOOD START: NPR: Trump’s Plotting to Cut All of Our Funding.
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Take the AK-47 Train. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have enough firearms to invade New Jersey, how to avoid prison with this one weird trick, and California Man’s not-so-excellent ski vacation.”
EVERGREEN HEADLINE: Democrats are doing themselves no favors on El Salvador.
The political battle over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he is imprisoned based on a belief that he is a member of MS-13, has taken over the conversation in Washington for weeks. Several Democratic members of the House and Senate have already announced plans to follow Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland on trips to El Salvador – where he met with Garcia.
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In the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election in November, some smart Democratic voices in media and consulting acknowledged that border issues and soft-on-crime policies were things that needed to change in order to become a majority party again – along with getting away from the craziest claims of the trans and DEI agendas. Lo and behold, not even six months later, Democrats are still dug in on all these areas. And with the hottest name in Democratic politics right now being Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her surging political tour, it looks like none of these lessons are going to survive. The progressive left is still in charge, and they’re still stuck on crazy.
The Chyron on CNN as I was leaving the gym today said something like “Van Hollen accuses Trump administration of wanting to change the subject on Garcia.” But I suspect they’re thrilled that he and the rest of the left are monomaniacally focused on this topic.
MITOCHONDRIAL PYRUVATE CARRIER, IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? This Tiny Cellular Gate Could Be the Key to Curing Cancer – And Regrowing Hair
YOU CAN’T HAVE A TRADE WAR WITHOUT AT LEAST SHORT-TERM DAMAGE TO TRADE: A market on the precipice: 5 takeaways from the April state of freight: Ocean import levels are signaling a big market downturn, even as trucking indicators are not collapsing…yet.
Related: Analyst warns of ‘carnage’ on shifts in container shipping.
But you can’t have any kind of war without collateral damage. Meanwhile, James Freeman thinks Trump’s strategy may be working.
THE BAND NAME MAY HAVE BEEN A BIT OF A GIVEAWAY: New Pornographers Drummer Joe Seiders Arrested for Possession of Child Porn.
FAUXCAHONTAS SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUE:
TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH: Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 5300 Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush. #CommissionEarned
SKYNET SMILES: A Chatbot Has Passed a Critical Test For Human-Like Intelligence. Now What?
There have been several headlines over the past week about an AI chatbot officially passing the Turing test.
These news reports are based on a recent preprint study by two researchers at the University of California San Diego in which four large language models (LLMs) were put through the Turing test. One model – OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 – was deemed indistinguishable from a human more than 70% of the time.
The Turing test has been popularised as the ultimate indicator of machine intelligence. However, there is disagreement about the validity of this test. In fact, it has a contentious history which calls into question how effective it really is at measuring machine intelligence.
As Glenn has noted, “The AI to really be afraid of is the one that deliberately fails the Turing Test.”
DOUBLING DOWN ON FAILURE: Despite Strict Gun Laws, Massachusetts Pushes for Even More Gun Control.
NEW SONG IN TRUMP WHITE HOUSE: Sound the warning! Those evil Christian Nationalists have taken over the Trump White House and they’re singing “Amazing Grace.” They even let Franklin Graham talk about Heaven and Hell. Oh my god, the humanity!!!
COLONIALISM, STRAIGHT UP:
Muslim breaks into Penafiel cemetery in Portugal, climbs on a cross and shouts "Allah Akbar", then destroys it. pic.twitter.com/3hE3brQx3C
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) April 18, 2025
IT’S RUDE TO ASK SUCH QUESTIONS:
Who did the attacking, Senator https://t.co/yUieYSEZtl
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 18, 2025
IMPROVE YOUR SKIN: NutraVive Crepe Repair Cream. #CommissionEarned
CORN, POPPED: Government Watchdog Files Ethics Complaint Against Sen. Van Hollen Over Trip to El Salvador to Meet With Alleged Gangbanger. “In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the American Accountability Foundation demanded that the secretary of the Senate be instructed ‘not to foot the bill for Van Hollen’s trip’ and called for the Senate Ethics Committee to open “an immediate investigation.'”
It likely won’t amount to much, but keeping Van Hollen’s priorities front and center isn’t a bad idea.
Kevin Williamson, call your office: Bernie’s Strange Brew of Nationalism and Socialism.
You too, Chris Matthews! Chris Matthews compares Bernie’s likely victory in Nevada to the Nazis conquering France in 1940.
THIS IS BASICALLY WHY PEOPLE BUY METAL DETECTORS: Huge gold nugget found by metal detector enthusiasts set for auction.
GREAT MOMENTS IN ASTROTURF: LeBron James Endorsed Kamala Harris. Then She Paid His Company $50K.
The campaign paid tens of millions of dollars to celebrities who appeared at campaign rallies on her behalf. Harris’s team paid $165,000 to the production company of Beyoncé Knowles, who spoke for four minutes in support of Harris at a rally in Houston in October. The campaign paid the production company of Oprah Winfrey at least $1 million for a sit-down interview in Chicago, and nearly $100,000 to the shell company of Barack and Michelle Obama, who appeared at several campaign events for Harris.
Team Harris gave $58,000 to rapper Cardi B, who spoke at a rally for Harris in Milwaukee on Nov. 1. Cardi B shot down allegations at the time that she was paid for the stump speech.
“I didn’t get paid a dollar,” said the rapper. “I actually came out of pocket for glam and travel because it’s somewhere I wanted to be.”
The Harris campaign donated more than $5 million to liberal activist groups, including $500,000 to the nonprofit of MSNBC host Al Sharpton. The controversial preacher interviewed Harris weeks after the donation without disclosing it to MSNBC viewers, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Campaign disclosures do not describe what James’s company did in exchange for the $50,000 payment. And it is unclear why the payment was made so long after the election. Campaign disclosures show Harris’s campaign also paid actress Jennifer Garner $35,000 for “campaign event production and travel” on Jan. 16. Garner, the ex-wife of Ben Affleck, appeared at several campaign events alongside Harris.
Still though, it was all worth it for the cornbread stuffing, if nothing else:
Flashback: Kamala Harris Campaign Aides Suggest Campaign Was Just Doomed.
BYRON YORK: Democratic passions catch fire over deported illegal immigrant.
With all that has happened since January, one issue that has received less and less attention is the flow of illegal crossers over the U.S.-Mexico border. That’s because there no longer is a flow of illegal crossers over the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump stopped it in a matter of weeks. What had been a national crisis under President Joe Biden, with 10 million to 15 million immigrants entering illegally while U.S. authorities did almost nothing, was fixed quickly by the new president. Democrats, of course, were on the wrong side of the issue, so they don’t talk much about Trump’s achievement.
But now, Democrats across Washington and their allies in the media are consumed with intense emotion over another immigration-related issue: the case of an illegal migrant and possible MS-13 gang member named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration recently deported to his native El Salvador. The Abrego Garcia affair has anti-Trump forces almost convulsed in a mixture of rage, self-righteousness, and political opportunism.
A sample? One anti-Trump organization recently published a piece headlined “Bring. Him. Home. Our cause is here; our time is now.” The article urged Democrats to undertake militant action. “They will have to act less like an American political party and more like Solidarity in Poland in the 1980s or Alexei Navalny’s People’s Alliance over the last decade,” it said. “But they should be under no illusions. The old American order is dead.”
Regardless of how the legal complexities play out, Democrats chose an odd hill to die on.