THE NEW SPACE RACE IN TECHNICOLOR AND PANAVISION:
X now finally supports 4K video!
Starship Flight 9 will be streamed in 4K. Thank you so much, @elonmusk and the @X team 🫡
Here’s a clip from the previous flight recap in 4K. Enjoy! 🍿 pic.twitter.com/tS2nzVGUdg
— Space Sudoer (@spacesudoer) May 9, 2025
Indications are that Starship Flight 9 might take place as soon as May 20.
IT’S EASY IF YOU TRY: See If You Can Spot the Biggest Difference Between Biden’s and Trump’s China Deals.
THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF CORY DOCTOROW’S “ENSHITTIFICATION”
wait WTF pic.twitter.com/ZDHrj3bnwh
— Peter Wildeford 🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford) May 11, 2025
“The worse, the better,” as one dedicated lefty put it.
PUBLIC SERVICE: Fed-up AOC constituents in Bronx, Queens mock absentee ‘rock star’ who’s never in the district: ‘This woman has done nothing.’
Frustration with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has reached a breaking point on her home turf, with fed up Queens and Bronx constituents telling The Post they’re sick and tired of being second fiddle to the jet-setting socialist’s primary focus — herself.
Her district offices in the Bronx and Queens offer little to justify the $1.9 million the congresswoman gets to run them — one is only open a single weekday and the other is closed on Fridays, with phones that go unanswered and constituents urged to discuss their problems “by appointment only.”
AOC’s town halls used to be monthly events – now are only held once in a blue moon, there’s virtually no way to get in a question, and sometimes she only phones in and doesn’t bother coming in person, galled constituents said.
“This woman has done nothing for the community she was once again elected to serve,” said Lauro Vazquez of Woodside, Queens.
So stop electing her.
THE GREAT NANNY RAID THAT WASN’T: WaPo’s ICE Hysteria: All Panic, No Nannies. “Remember that even neurotic crazy people are the heroes of their own story — and that the Washington Post is happy to lend them a cape.”
STORIES THAT HELP REPUBLICANS AREN’T NEWS:
I paid $2.87 for a gallon of gas today, the lowest price I can remember paying in years. That’s down by nearly half from peak-Biden gas prices in the summer of 2022. Should be a major talking point, instead it’s almost completely ignored by media.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 12, 2025
HMM: Democratic senator says GOP is trying to woo Fetterman.
Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego said Republicans are trying to pull John Fetterman to the right and argued Democrats should keep the Pennsylvania senator in their corner as he faces mounting questions over his health and shifting political persona.
“There needs to be space for Fetterman and for other senators in our caucus,” he said in an interview Saturday. “He still is a senator that fights for working-class people. We may not be 100 percent in agreement a lot of times in a lot of areas, but we don’t have to be.”
While some Democrats have distanced themselves from Fetterman, top Republicans have rallied around him in the wake of news reports that his current and former staffers are concerned about his mental and physical health. Several GOP senators, including Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), have come to Fetterman’s defense on social media.
“The radical left is smearing him with dishonest, vicious attacks because he’s pro-Israel and they only want reliable anti-Israel politicians,” Cotton said.
Asked if Republicans are trying to tug Fetterman to the GOP, Gallego said “of course.”
Except for Israel and the occasional show vote Trump nominee who was going to be confirmed regardless, Fetterman is a reliably lefty Democrat. I’m not sure if he’s woo-able or whether he could fit in at all.
Related: Republicans Trying to Woo Senator Fetterman To Join the GOP Are Wasting Their Time.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: My Favorite Thing About Trump Being President Is All the Trump Stuff. “It’s stunning to watch the tug of war between what Trump and his administration are doing in the real world and the alternative reality that the Democrats and the media are shrieking about. They so desperately want President Trump to fail that they’re hoping that the country falls apart.”
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “EVERYONE GETS THEIR DAY IN COURT?” OH, RIGHT — DEMOCRATS:
…In prior years, Democratic groups unleashed a campaign to pressure firms to fire lawyers who represented Trump, the Republican Party, or conservative causes. It worked. I know lawyers who were told to drop Republican cases or else find new employment.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 12, 2025
DECOUPLING:
This is great… the only problem is that there actually are – checks Bloomberg – exactly 53 ships headed for California's top ports, more than there were on this day one year ago. https://t.co/7uyg2tjI5c pic.twitter.com/lvwna4TWjy
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 10, 2025
Two possible takeaways from this one.
The first is that the “Stores will have empty shelves!” scare stories from last month might not amount to much. The other is that China very much — desperately? — needs to keep the export machine working overtime, even if they have to eat a substantial fraction of the tariffs. Maybe Beijing is kicking in? Or maybe US importers are counting on the super-high tariffs being temporary. Who knows.
Again, we’re early into this process and predictions are probably a fool’s game.
TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Finally Reverses Biden’s Travel Ban on Prominent Soros Critic.
An outspoken opponent of Hungarian American megadonor George Soros can finally visit the United States after the Biden administration banned him in 2021, accusing him of corruption.
Sali Berisha, former prime minister of Albania and head of the Albanian opposition party in an election Sunday, accused Soros and current Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama of conspiring with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to prevent him from visiting the U.S. When then-Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., pressed Blinken for evidence of Berisha’s alleged corruption, the State Department stonewalled him, Zeldin said.
Berisha, who served as Albania’s president from 1992 to 1997 and as prime minister from 2005 to 2013, originally welcomed Soros’ investments into Albania but has opposed Soros’ efforts for decades.
The full headline includes the question, “WAS SOROS INVOLVED?”
With a possible answer to that, here’s DataRepublican (small r) last week:
This question pops up in my comments a lot. The answer is simple: Republicans and Democrats work with him.
The references I found were not from some random academic journal. Over 30 direct mentions of Soros or his NGOs appeared in the Journal of Democracy. It’s the flagship journal of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the same organization featured prominently in that widely circulated “Uniparty NGO” network diagrams below.
NED is a U.S. government-funded outfit. It includes currently sitting members of Congress on its board… from both parties, not just former officials.
Soros’s involvement is deep. He has co-chaired NED conferences abroad and his Open Society NGOs regularly partner with NED operations, especially in countries undergoing “transitions” (read: regime change or soft power penetration). Together, Soros and US-backed NGOs have shaped funding pipelines, media narratives, and even foreign electoral strategies.
So when people ask, “Why isn’t Soros banned?” … they need to understand: he’s not an outsider. He’s part of our government. The Uniparty protects and partners with him, because he helps carry out a shared foreign policy vision… the same one that labels President Trump as a threat to democracy.
Much more at DR’s X thread.
THEY’RE FLAILING: MSNBC Bet Big on Jen Psaki’s New Prime-Time Show. They’re Losing.
HEH:
Anti-gay hate crimes recorded by police in 2023:
Saudi Arabia: 0
Pakistan: 0
Yemen: 0
Brunei: 0
Somalia: 0
Afghanistan: 0
USA: 2402And you’re telling me it’s the Islamic states that are homophobic? 🤦🏽♀️
— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) May 9, 2025
Related? One-Third of American Cities No Longer Report Crime Statistics to the FBI.
No report, no problem.
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Driving While Drunk and Waving Guns. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we learn what not to wave around in the car when you’re driving drunk, how to rescue a baby owl, and what not to give a raccoon in Ohio.”
EVEN WITH A SCORECARD, I CAN’T KEEP UP: Trump Wants 80% Tariffs on U.S.-Hating China.
WELL, THEY AREN’T WRONG:
Thousand of young British patriots chant "Keir Starmer’s a Wanker"
He has completely lost the youth. pic.twitter.com/WDYW0k3VyO
— Inevitable West (@Inevitablewest) May 9, 2025
NICK BOSTROM, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Gravity could be the definitive clue that the universe is one giant computer.
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS RESTING COMFORTABLY: Iran Is Hiding a Nuclear Weapons Development Site: Report.
WHIPLASH: US weighs plan to slash China tariffs to as low as 50% — down from 145% — as soon as next week.
The Trump administration is weighing a plan to slash the 145% tariff on Chinese imports by more than half — effective as soon as next week — as top US and China officials head to Switzerland for high-level trade negotiations, The Post has learned.
Specifically, US officials are discussing a proposal to lower President Trump’s punishing levy on China goods to between 50% and 54% as they begin what promise to be lengthy talks to hammer out a trade agreement, sources close to the negotiations said.
Meanwhile, trade taxes on neighboring south Asian countries would be cut to 25%, the source added.
“They are going to be bringing it down to 50% while the negotiations are ongoing,” the source said of the trade tax on China.
There are almost too many moving pieces in these negotiations to keep track.
THAT REALLY OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN AN EASY A: College President Flunks Test on Whether It’s Wrong to Celebrate Hamas Murders of Jews.
GLOBAL MILITARIES TO STUDY INDIA-PAKISTAN FIGHTER JET BATTLE.
The aerial clash is a rare opportunity for militaries to study the performance of pilots, fighter jets and air-to-air missiles in active combat, and use that knowledge to prepare their own air forces for battle.
Experts said the live use of advanced weapons would be analyzed across the world, including in China and the United States which are both preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan or in the wider Indo-Pacific region.
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was high confidence that Pakistan had used the Chinese-made J-10 aircraft to launch air-to-air missiles against Indian fighter jets.
Social media posts focused on the performance of China’s PL-15 air-to-air missile against the Meteor, a radar-guided air-to-air missile produced by European group MBDA (AIR.PA), opens new tab, (BAES.L), opens new tab, (LDOF.MI), opens new tab. There has been no official confirmation these weapons were used.
“Air warfare communities in China, the U.S. and a number of European countries will be extremely interested to try and get as much ground truth as they can on tactics, techniques, procedures, what kit was used, what worked and what didn’t,” said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“You have arguably China’s most capable weapon against the West’s most capable weapon, if indeed it was being carried; we don’t know that,” Barrie said.
I don’t think anybody really considers the French-built Rafale to be “the West’s most capable weapon.”
But the point stands about Chinese jets and missiles — the days of China making nothing but cheap copies are long over.
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