KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Tim Walz Still Believes MSM’s ¿Quién Es Más Macho? Shtick About Him. “Part of creating the Kamala Harris fiction out of whole cloth involved turning her running mate Tim Walz into a believable human being. They pitched him as some sort of testosterone-laden man’s man who disenfranchised males would flock to. It was a story so patently absurd that only one person in America bought it — Tim Walz.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
May 1, 2025
MAN, DID I EVER VOTE FOR THIS: EPA canceling nearly 800 environmental justice grants.
In a filing that was entered last week but first reported by The Washington Post Tuesday, a high-ranking EPA employee states that the agency has already told 377 grantees that their awards were canceled.
The agency plans to send cancellation notifications to an additional 404 — meaning a total of 781 grants are being canceled, said the filing, a declaration from Daniel Coogan, the EPA’s Deputy Assistant Administrator for Infrastructure and Extramural Resources.
The grants are primarily related to programs that deal with environmental justice — that is, dealing with pollution in communities that face disproportionate impacts and have limited resources. This includes low-income and minority communities.
The Trump administration has targeted environmental justice programs — firing 280 staffers and reassigning another 175 who worked on the issue, saying it’s part of a broader effort against diversity initiatives.
It’s all just slush funds and payouts for progressive groups.
DECOUPLING: China exports drop amid tariff fight with U.S.
The country’s official purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector, which gauges Chinese factory activity, was at 49 points this month, down from 50.5 last month. A reading of 50 points or higher means factory activity is expanding, while a reading below 50 means it is contracting. This month’s reading was the weakest since December 2023.
New export orders dropped sharply to 44.7 points this month, which is the lowest reading since December 2022, indicating that trade is slowing between China and the U.S. as American importers cancel or delay orders amid tariffs.
President Trump has placed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports. China then placed more than 100% tariffs on U.S. imports and has targeted U.S. companies that operate in China while also restricting exports of minerals used in batteries and other high-tech applications.
In a social media post on Tuesday, the Chinese government said it will “never kneel down” before the U.S.
Tuesday was a long time ago: China caves on 125% tariff for major US export after White House predicts Beijing can’t keep up.
UGH: Your Nest Thermostat May Be About to Become a Decoration. “Google announced that it was becoming a pain in the posterior to update the outdated hardware on some Nest Learning Thermostats, specifically the 2011 first generation, the 2012 second generation, and the European version of the 2014 second generation. Updates on those devices will grind to a screeching halt on October 25.”
The thermostats will still work but without any smart or cloud functionality.
April 30, 2025
THE TIES THAT BIND: Ukraine says it hopes to sign U.S. minerals deal within 24 hours.
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?!
HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Rubio Took the Reins Down in Africa and Got Truce Talks Humming.
PATHETIC PERFORMANCE, CHRIS, AND ON SO MANY LEVELS, PAST AND PRESENT:
NEW: Former CNN reporter Chris Cillizza says journalists were *not* covering up Biden's mental decline but were rather just too trusting of the Biden White House.
"I think it was an inherent and sort of unconscious bias more than a conscious bias."
The clowns in the media never… pic.twitter.com/xXq0WkLrQw
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 28, 2025
IT’S THE LAW, WHICH, LAST I CHECKED, JUDGES ARE SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT: Hey, Man, We Didn’t Write the Rule Book About What Should Happen to Those Two Outlaw Judges.
FINALLY, AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Iran Port Blast Was Massive.
The shipment was reportedly carrying sodium perchlorate, which is indeed pretty spicy stuff if handled improperly.
Now we have footage of the blast and, holy crap, was it massive and devastating.
Impressive video at the link.
NICE WORK, GOVERNOR:
Per capita debt trends — federal vs Florida
Florida’s per capita debt is declining and the per citizen share of the state debt is less than $500.
The per citizen share of the federal debt: $105,000. pic.twitter.com/UN39n3c7UQ
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 30, 2025
As somebody on X noted, it’s amazing what a growing population, a friendly business climate, and competent governance can do.
HISTORICAL IGNORANCE IS PART AND PARCEL OF LEFTISM: Republican Slams Dem’s ‘Disgustingly Ignorant’ Holocaust Comparison in Battle Over Immigration Bill.
TO BE FAIR, THIS KIND OF THING KEEPS HAPPENING: Europe Just Proved Trump Right About NATO. “In a shocking-not-shocking exclusive report in The (UK) Times, Europe ‘would struggle to put 25,000 troops on the ground in Ukraine’ as part of a postwar peacekeeping force. Defense Editor Larisa Brown ‘was given a rare insight into conversations between Europe’s defence ministers and military chiefs as they thrashed out plans for a ‘coalition of the willing’ force,’ and the results are as disappointing as they are sobering.”
WHAT THE ACTUAL… YOU KNOW… IS GOING ON WITH THE DEMS?
It's funny how this is now just an unremarkable committee tweet at this point https://t.co/4jOA247pqb
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) April 29, 2025
They’ve been dropping f-bombs in Congress for a couple months now and it isn’t by accident.
I’m just not certain about the design.
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Trump’s Department of Education Investigates Chicago Schools’ Racist Policies.
DECOUPLING: What we can VERIFY about Port of Seattle ‘ghost town’ rumors.
According to both sources, three international cargo ships were docked Monday in the Port of Seattle. One is registered in Portugal, one in Singapore, and the third in Hong Kong.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance told KING 5 that 15 more cargo ships are expected to pass between the Port of Seattle (nine for Seattle) and the Port of Tacoma over the next week. Twelve of those ships are expected to contain goods from China.
The Seaport Alliance said port traffic in Seattle is up 7.3% in the last 30 days. The port saw an 18.4% increase in volumes in March, partially driven by shippers moving cargo before anticipated tariffs.
Northwest Seaport Alliance Port of Seattle Commissioner, Ryan Calkins, said the future does not look as good.“The last forecast I saw was forecasting out over the next three months, and each month was forecasted to be down around 25% per month,” Calkins said.
The Seaport Alliance said some ships are coming in with less cargo than anticipated. In some cases, it is 30% lower.
“Unfortunately, we are beginning to see a reduction in the total number of containers coming off any particular vessel when they come in,” Calkins said.
Exit quote: “The Northwest Seaport Alliance said the Port of Seattle is not a ‘ghost town,’ but it will be closely watching what happens in the next couple of weeks.”
WHAT’S A LITTLE FIVE-FIGURE THEFT AMONG FRIENDS? This California Dem Wants to Legalize $25K Welfare Fraud.
IF THEY WERE HAPPY AND WELL-ADJUSTED, THEY WOULDN’T BE LEFTISTS*:
French study confirms what we all knew and what American studies have shown: conservative young men have the highest levels of life satisfaction and psychological health, young leftists have the highest levels of depression. https://t.co/lz3wyYFm8x
— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) April 29, 2025
*Or however you say it in French.
DOMESTIC TERRORISM: Tesla arson suspect arrested in Arizona after he allegedly set brand new Cybertruck on fire.
Mesa police responded just before 2:00 a.m. on Monday, April 28, to reports of an explosion at the Tesla Service Center in Mesa, Ariz.
Witnesses reported smoke and flames near the building, which officers determined were coming from a newly delivered Tesla Cybertruck.
Footage from Fox News affiliate, KSAZ-TV, captured federal and state law enforcement surrounding the Tesla dealership after the fire was put out.
The arson suspect, identified by local police as 35-year-old Ian Moses, allegedly wrote “THEIF” (sic) on the side of the dealership before setting the Cybertruck on fire.
Who was supposed to have stolen what?
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump Put About 100 Months’ Worth of Work Into His First 100 Days. “The president and his people have been working with an urgency driven by the dire straits that Joe Biden and his idiot handlers left the country in. There was no time to slow-play an agenda if the Republic was going to be saved — things were that bad. I had never gone into existential crisis mode until Biden and his slow kid commie cabal came into power.”
CHARMING: Ukrainian Reporter Was Tortured in Russian Prison Before Her Death, Investigation Finds.
Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in the summer of 2023 while reporting on black site prisons in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. She died under unclear circumstances while being held at a Russian prison in September 2024. Her remains were returned in February 2025 as part of an exchange of bodies between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian forensic experts confirmed the remains were a 99.9% DNA match with her parents, according to a collaborative investigation led by Forbidden Stories, an international network of journalists.
“There were numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment on the body,” the exiled Russian news outlet IStories quoted Yuriy Belousov, head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office war crimes unit, as saying.
According to The Guardian, medical examiners documented burn marks on her feet from electric shocks, abrasions on her head and hip, a broken rib and a fractured hyoid bone — a possible sign of strangulation.
“Experts have not yet been able to determine the cause of death due to the body’s condition,” Belousov said.
Investigators said the body was returned without a brain, eyes or larynx. A Ukrainian law enforcement source told IStories that Russia sometimes attributes missing organs to standard autopsy procedures.
“However, this may be a way to hide traces of violence,” the source said.
Meanwhile: “Russia is once again preparing to escalate the forced removal and deportation of Ukrainian children during the upcoming summer months. A Russian official stated that about 53,000 children from occupied Ukraine will ‘spend their summer holidays’ in children’s camps throughout occupied Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”
Nobody — at least nobody serious — is talking about going to war with Russia. But anyone wondering why Ukraine fights on needs to know about these things.