THOSE LUTHERANS ARE UP TO NO GOOD AGAIN: Minnesota Heads Off ‘Mass Casualty Attack’ Planned for ‘the Next 24 Hours.’
Author Archive: Stephen Green
April 25, 2025
OOF:
SCOTUSblog is transitioning from being run by one fraudster to being run by a collection of fraudsters. https://t.co/70MVNQsJUF pic.twitter.com/Vsv6lrLfcs
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 23, 2025
PAULA BOLYARD: Here’s a Novel Solution to Grooming in Schools.
DECOUPLING: US Propane Tanker Diverts Chinese Port Call In Latest Warning Sign For China’s Plastic Factories.
To begin the week, we highlighted a potential breaking point emerging in the global economy due to the escalating tariff war: Chinese plastics manufacturers—heavily reliant on U.S. petrochemicals—now face production halts as shipments are increasingly being diverted from the world’s second-largest economy.
Bloomberg cites new ship-tracking data showing that a very large gas carrier hauling U.S. propane has diverted from its initial destination in China to a new port of call in Japan.
The data showed that BW Gemini is hauling 46,000 tons of propane from the U.S. The gas tanker left Phillips 66 Freeport LPG Export Terminal in late March and was initially headed for Yantai, China. However, in recent days, while traversing the Pacific Ocean, the port of call was changed to Imari, Japan.
There was no explanation for BW Gemini’s sudden port calling switch from China to Japan, but in recent weeks, Beijing slapped 125% tariffs on all liquefied petroleum gas.
As noted earlier today, Trump holds most of the, er, trump cards.
THIS WEEK’S VIP-ONLY ESSAY: Our Elites Owe Us More Than a Shrug and a Rewrite.
BURIED LEDE: Google reveals sky-high Gemini usage numbers in antitrust case.
The one truly interesting item in this report is buried in the final graf: “Google doesn’t talk about how much it earns (more likely loses) from Gemini subscriptions, but OpenAI has noted that it loses money even on its $200 monthly plan.”
If OpenAI can’t make money on its highest-priced plan, AI has a long way to go before it becomes profitable — and the shakeout is going to be brutal.
A TYPICAL WASHINGTON MANEUVER, TBH: Jon Ossoff Voted for Military Pay Raises — Then Voted Against Funding Them.
I WILL NOT EAT THE BUGS: Eat The Bugs, Pay For The Water. “Is this any way to run an evil organization bent on world domination? Did Ernst Stavro Blofeld ever have to justify the expense of a volcano base to a SPECTRE audit committee?”
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: It’s Amazing What a Little White House Browbeating of Schools Will Do to Address Antisemitism.
HENRY GAO: China Can’t Go It Alone.
As demonstrated above, China’s options are limited, and where it does have some initiative, its deteriorating economy makes it difficult to mount an effective response to the United States. Even if China does take action, the consequences are likely to backfire. So, can any other country come to China’s rescue?
The most obvious candidate is the European Union, which has made some noises to that effect. But the European Union is also caught in a bind. While it shares China’s discontent with the United States’ aggressive tariff policies, it is not about to embrace a flood of cheap Chinese imports rejected by the United States. While the European Union is indeed negotiating a deal on electric vehicles with China, this deal is less about solidarity against the United States — as some news outlets have suggested — and more about preemptively limiting Chinese imports. In exchange for suspending trade remedy measures, Chinese exporters are agreeing to a minimum price for electric vehicles in the European Union — which hardly seems likely to further boost sales.
Recognizing this, China has made efforts to rally support from neighboring countries, as seen in Xi Jinping’s recent visits to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. However, these countries are hardly enthusiastic partners with China either. In 2024, Vietnam exported 42 percent of what it imported from China, and Cambodia’s trade deficit with China accounted for 30 percent of its GDP. All three nations enjoy trade surpluses with the United States, making it highly unlikely they would side with China over the United States. As a result, despite China’s diplomatic push, it has failed to secure major concessions from other Asian nations, including Vietnam.
Ultimately, China likely understands its true position.
This is a lengthy article, but worth your time.
Trump really couldn’t have found a better time or a better tool for dealing with the CCP.
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS STUCK LIKE THAT: Deported El Salvadoran stopped in car owned by alien who pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges.
PRECISELY:
"Don't open Pandora's box!" the WSJ editorial board exclaims, as the rest of us stare at a box that has been opened for twenty years unleashing nonstop law fare https://t.co/m0KnRsifRJ
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) April 24, 2025
The Democrats’ MO, going back at least to Obama, is to engineer (or at least take advantage of) a crisis. They then permanently lock in their political gains by using the courts to thwart the will of the people.
It’s easy to illegally let in 10 million “migrants” and lavish them with taxpayer money. It’s impossible to undo the damage when the courts insist that illegal government actions can only be undone if the new government submits to unprecedented court scrutiny and control.
TO BE FAIR, THE RUSSIANS ARE EVEN LESS COOPERATIVE: ‘GET IT DONE’: Trump Lets Into Zelensky for Complicating Peace Negotiations.
DECOUPLING CUTS BOTH WAYS: China sends Boeing planes back to US over tariffs.
Kelly Ortberg said two planes had already been returned and another would follow after trade tensions between the two countries escalated.
Boeing’s chief executive told CNBC that 50 more planes were due to go to China this year but their customers had indicated they will not take delivery of them.
The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it hit back with a 125% tax on US products.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said he was optimistic about improving trade relations with China, saying the level of tariffs he had imposed would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.
However, Mr Ortberg said China “have in fact stopped taking delivery of aircraft because of tariff environment”.
Boeing is America’s largest exporter with about 70% of its commercial aircraft sales outside of the US.
Mr Ortberg said Boeing was assessing options to re-market 41 of the already built planes to other customers as there was high demand from other airlines.
Left unanswered: What Chinese airlines will do without their American jets. It isn’t like Airbus can suddenly summon up an extra three dozen.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
This is scary AF! We’re technically still in an ice age, and these psychopaths want to block the main source of life — THE SUN? Way more people die from cold than heat, and they want less sunlight? Genocidal death cult! pic.twitter.com/obrsdHVht9
— Dr. Simon Goddek (@goddeketal) April 23, 2025
UPDATE (From Ed): Why are the Brits trying something so crazy that Barry O. himself refused to implement it, even at the height of Hopenchange fever, when his administration could have done pretty much anything they wanted to do?
Still though, could be worse:
James Lileks writes, “I was somewhat alarmed by this story:”
“Experiments to dim the SUN in bid to curb global warming will be approved by the UK government within weeks.” (Daily Fail, but they’re quoting a Telegraph story.) Of all the countries to come up with the idea of reducing the amount of sun its residents get, England would seem to be last on the list. Also, this is how the Matrix got started. Also, I think a poll of most of England outside of the government, universities, and tanks of Cogitating Boffins would regard the idea as utter tosh, because Climate Dread is quite low on the list of concerns for most UK residents. I’m sure there are plenty of people who have it so good they can devote all their mental activities to appeasing the contentious relationship between the Sun God and the Earth Mother, with an hour set aside each day to worry about Knife Crime (blades are just jumping up from the gutter into the hands of people and wiping away their entire personal moral construct, forcing them to stab without thought) and the Growing Peril of the millions of proto-Adolescent young men who are being drawn to the dark side by gormless dorks such as Andrew Tate, but outside of these types, maybe there’s a general assumption that the government should not muck about with the Sun.
Or to put it another way: Democrats Move to Destroy the Earth.
To paraphrase Peter Arnett, it was necessary to destroy the Global Village in order to save it.
STATES PROBABLY SHOULDN’T RUN LOTTERIES ANYWAY: Texas Lawmakers Threaten to Shut Down the State Lottery Over Possible Gaming of the System.
Update: The intro originally read “should” instead of “shouldn’t.” Fixed now.
CHANGE, PART I: Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood after alleged sabotage plot against Hashemite Kingdom.
Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen Fraya said all Muslim Brotherhood activities would be banned in the country and anyone promoting the group’s ideology would be held accountable by law. The ban includes publishing anything by the group and closure and confiscation of all its offices and property, he added.
Fraya said Muslim Brotherhood members had planned attacks on security targets and sensitive locations in the kingdom, aiming to destabilize the country, but did not disclose what these targets were.
Faraya told reporters that “members of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood… are operating in the shadows and engage in activities that could undermine stability and security.”
Change, Part II: Abbas calls Hamas ‘sons of dogs’ and demands release of Gaza hostages.
The president of the Palestinian Authority told a meeting in the occupied West Bank that Hamas had given Israel “excuses” to continue its attacks on Gaza, and told it to “release the hostages and be done with it”.
The remarks were the strongest against the group that the president has delivered since the war began 18 months ago.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it looks like more and more of the locals are sick of them both.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trans Hill Is the One Dems Want to Die On, So Let’s Help Them. “What used to be a crime is now something that leftists have twisted into a civil rights issue. If you are at all outraged by a hirsute pervert exposing his genitalia in front of a little girl in the name of trans rights, you’re called a bigot. In the diseased minds of modern day Democrats, the child predator in the above scenario is viewed as a brave pioneer fighting for rights.”
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Executive Order Will Bar Decertifying Colleges Over DEI.
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday prohibiting higher education accreditors from participating in unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion discrimination, five sources familiar with the directive told The Daily Signal.
Ensuring that accreditors don’t require colleges and universities to require unlawful discrimination, such as DEI policies, could protect conservative colleges like Hillsdale and Grove City, which don’t record students’ races or abide by racial admissions quotas.
The Wednesday order will ensure accreditors comply with federal anti-discrimination law like Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order prohibiting DEI practices in federal funded education. It will also create accreditation processes that reduce barriers to streamline programs; instruct accreditors to give more deference to state law; and target credential inflation, the devaluation of educational or academic credentials over time, a senior administration confirmed to The Daily Signal.
Yuge.
SOMETIMES, PREDICTIONS ARE EASY: Predictions for the German Economy Call for No Growth and Blaming Trump.
The forecasts are out for the moribund German economy – which suddenly and conveniently no one can remember was already in the toilet and has been circling for the past two years – and darned if they aren’t downright gloomy.
I mean, they’re coloring it as ‘down to zero’ when it was only optimistically predicted to come in at around 0.3% growth at its best anyway.
Shave and a haircut difference, but ‘nothing, no growth, nada’ is pretty dramatic when you’ve just sold your soul to the European Union for hundreds of billions of euros in debt service to be determined later.
It’s a brilliant bunch they have in charge in that country.
Who might that be?
Well, basically the same losers who got them in this pickle to begin with, only their precedence in a governing coalition has been shaken and stirred – that’s all.
Germany is the new sick man of Europe — and they infected themselves.
A COURT MARTIAL OR TWO MIGHT PUT AN END TO THESE PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE INSUBORDINATIONS: Female Army Commander Suspended After Base Failed to Post Photos of Trump, Vance, and Hegseth.
April 23, 2025
EVEN SICK KIDS NEED REAL FOOD: Hey, RFK Jr.: Please Take on Big Formula and Normalize Real Food for Kids With G-Tubes.
WATER RIGHTS ARE A VERY BIG DEAL AND INDIA HAS THREATENED TO CUT PAKISTAN’S OFF: India and Pakistan Are THIS Close to War… Again.