Archive for 2025
June 20, 2025
THIS ISN’T LEGAL: Trump extends deadline for US TikTok sale to September.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short-video app TikTok despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress.
Trump signed an executive order pushing back Thursday’s deadline for 90 days, a step he had previously signaled.
The Republican president had already twice granted a reprieve from federal enforcement of a law that mandated the sale or shutdown of TikTok that was supposed to take effect in January, absent significant progress toward a sale.
Trump has said he wants to keep the app, which helped him woo young voters in the 2024 presidential election, active in the U.S.
That’s nice, but it still isn’t legal:
Just days before Trump 47 resumed office, SCOTUS upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The law gave ByteDance until January 19 (270 days from enactment) to find a buyer, but granted POTUS the power to grant a single, 90-day extension. Trump granted it, giving ByteDance until April 19. Then — and this was illegal — Trump granted another extension, giving ByteDance until June 19.
“Essentially with TikTok I have the right to sell it or close it,” Trump claimed when he issued the extension. “That’s wrong,” the Free Press reminded readers this week. “Trump doesn’t have a right to sell or ban the app but an obligation.”
Why won’t Trump 47 enforce the law Trump 45 lobbied for?
I asked that question two weeks ago and there’s still no answer.
WHEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF RACE AND POLITICS COMES FROM A SEMINAR AT BARNARD. . . . Latinos And Immigration: Democrats Step On The Rake Again.
JUST ANOTHER MURDEROUS ILLEGAL ATTACK: U.S. Attorney Narrowly Avoids Murder Attempt by Illegal Alien.
Nothing to see here.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Jasmine Crockett Is Lucky We Don’t Do Witch Trials Anymore. “Crockett has the straitjacket soapbox for the moment, however. In some recent, barely coherent remarks, Crockett said that anyone who supports President Trump is ‘sick.’ Proving that she’s the one with a mental disorder, Crockett wrapped up her denigrating screed with a call for unity.”
JOHN LUCAS: The Art of Propagandistic Headlines: Trump the warmonger? “The middle-of-the-road [sic] Wall Street Journal emphasizes that President Trump and his ‘threats’ against Iran are ‘bellicose.’ I am personally familiar with the precision with which editors of the Journal choose specific words. Headlines and such ledes are perhaps even more important than the remaining text, since as we all know, they form a reader’s first — and sometimes only — impression of the gist of the remaining article. So, what exactly were the very precise and astute editors of the Journal trying to convince us of with their choice of words?”
Among other things, that the WSJ isn’t what it used to be. But we had already noticed.
THE ENEMY WITHIN (UK EDITION):
The “Lebanese grill” in London is using footage of Iranian missile strikes on Israeli civilians to promote its restaurant.
London is full of Jihadists. pic.twitter.com/OHXGsO9cfe
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 20, 2025
HAHA:
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Marines and sailors combat drone threats by digging trenches. “U.S. Marines and sailors worked alongside Latvian Army troops recently to clear woods and build a warren of trenches for countering potential drone threats — both as practice for real-world deployments and to test new battlefield tactics.”
PROBLEM, MEET SOLUTION: Florida Offers ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ To House Illegal Aliens.
HOW NOT TO BE A NATIONAL PASTIME: When Baseball Picks a Side and Shuts Out Half the Country.
OUTRIGHT RACISM: Exclusive: Harvard Law Review Axes 85 Percent of Submissions Using Race-Conscious Rubric, Documents Show: Journal nixed piece by Asian scholar after editors complained there were ‘not enough Black and Latino/Latina authors’. Why does Harvard hate Asians so much?
UPDATE:
Harvard Law not only appears to have admitted significant numbers of profoundly unprepared students. It also appears to have failed to teach them even the most basic elements of the law. https://t.co/XpNpAB1RCr
— Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) June 19, 2025
More accurately, I think it’s taught them that Harvard is above the law.
LIMITED TIME DEAL: LEVOIT Tower Fan for Bedroom, Standing Fan with 28dB Quiet for Sleep. #CommissionEarned
DIGITAL THUGS:
The US government skyrocketed the USAID budget for Brazil while Bolsonaro was there. Not to help Brazilians economically, but to flood the political opposition in Brazil with money to try to take him out. https://t.co/rBUfEsryVv pic.twitter.com/44W7r7toKZ
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) June 19, 2025
NOW THAT’S SOME CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: Senate Confirms Border Patrol Veteran of 30 Years Who Was Fired by Mayorkas to Lead CBP.
Rodney Scott is a 30-year veteran of the Border Patrol, who previously served as the chief patrol agent in San Diego sector under the first Trump administration, before earning promotion to chief of the U.S. Border Patrol from 2020 to 2021. In June ’21, former CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan, who promoted Scott, expressed his anger at then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for firing Scott, a “man of integrity” and “courage,” explaining that Scott had been “very honest and open about his criticisms” of the Biden administration’s handling of the border “impact[ing] their ability to secure our borders.”
Morgan did not mince words about how Mayorkas seemed to gauge who should be retained and who should be fired:
“If [Sec. Mayorkas] cannot bully someone, a career official, if he can’t turn a career official into no more than a puppet to further his open border policies, he’s getting rid of him. And that’s what he’s done.”
Back in April, investigative journalist Catherine Herridge noted that Scott has promised to look into CBP whistleblowers Mark Jones, Fred Wynn, and Mike Taylor’s allegations that they were retaliated against “for showing homeland security was in violation of its own border law,” and hold those DHS officials accountable.
It also doesn’t hurt things that the Border Czar, Tom Homan is a long time fan.
Nifty.
GET RID OF HR AND MOST OF THEIR AUTHORITY, REPLACE THEM WITH THE OLD FASHIONED “PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT.” Everyone hates HR.
AND THEY AREN’T ANY HAPPIER WHEN THEY’RE IN CHARGE: Nate Silver: The Liberal-Conservative Happiness Gap is Real.
People become leftists because they’re self-hating and miserable.
ALLIES: Will This Blow Up NATO? “Erdogan appears to be calculating that he will not get any pushback within NATO for claiming the internationally recognized sovereign territory of another member state, and he is likely right about that. This isn’t the first time he has claimed Greek territory, and almost certainly will not be the last, yet Turkey doesn’t seem to be in any danger of losing its NATO membership.”
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:
Technical Foul? WNBA Players Use Caitlin Clark's Head As A Ball https://t.co/3HsbflFYay pic.twitter.com/8REr6jwOwA
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 18, 2025
June 19, 2025
SENSE IMPOSED:
As expected.
Breyer made a fool of himself in this decision. Appellate panel rightly overturned his partisan and baseless order. https://t.co/BC1EsZgMpw
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 20, 2025
A TERRIBLE PRESIDENT AND AN AWFUL HUMAN BEING:
Orwellian and insane.
Obama: Distinguishing Between Fact And Opinion Will Require Government Constraints, "We Don't Want A Diversity Of Facts" https://t.co/PE3iSYz8Xn
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) June 19, 2025
Flashback: Obama campaign backs Biden’s controversial ‘chains’ remark.
OPEN THREAD: Play nice, children.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:
Old and busted: Keep Austin weird, but keep Austin surrounded.
The New Hotness? Fire up a B-52. Why take chances?
THE NEW SPACE RACE: 2 Chinese spacecraft just met up 22,000 miles above Earth. What were they doing?