FORGET GET OUT THE VOTE, NOW IT’S MAIL IN THE VOTE: Trump Has Changed the Rules for How Republicans Win (and Lose).

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Xi Jinping calls for China’s biggest military reorganization since 2015.

With an intention to expand its military capabilities, China terminated the Strategic Support Force and in turn created a new branch called the Information Support Force. This provides China with the ability to bolster its capabilities in several areas including cyber warfare, Xinhua News reported.

It is important to note that Beijing’s now-terminated Strategic Support Force was created more than eight years ago with the aim of enhancing capabilities in space, cyber, political and electronic warfare.

China’s defence ministry maintained that the aerospace and cyber units previously under the Strategic Support Force will now be organizationally parallel to the newly created Information Support Force.

The aerospace unit is expected to improve China’s capability to use space and step up the management of space crises.

While announcing the new re-organisation, Xi reiterated the Communist Party’s leadership over the army.

Xi’s leadership over the CCP required no reiteration.

GREG BYRNES: The Patron Saint of the Biden Administration Seems To Be Friedrich Nietzsche.

Flashback (from Ed) to 2020: Roger Kimball: Joe Biden and Friedrich Nietzsche.

“Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man.”

CHANGE: Tennessee workers at VW plant vote to unionize with UAW. “Nearly three quarters of the workers voted to support the UAW, according to the final results from the National Labor Review Board. Of the 4,326 workers eligible to vote, more than 3,600 casts ballots over the three-day election.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Here’s an Idea — You Don’t Have to Like Trump to Vote for Him. “People who still call themselves conservatives and/or Republicans who hate Trump so much that they don’t want to vote for him are letting their feelings get in the way of the continued existence of the Republic. It really is that simple. All one has to do is look at the damage that has been done to this country by the commies who are running what’s left of Joe Biden’s brain.”

YOU DON’T SAY: IMF’s Gopinath says high U.S. deficits fueling growth, higher interest rates.

Gopinath told a fiscal forum at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings that U.S. deficits are projected to rise for years with one of the world’s steepest curves for debt.

“The high levels of deficits are also supporting growth and demand in the U.S. that have positive spillover to the rest of the world,” Gopinath said. “But along with that growth, you’re getting higher interest rates and a stronger dollar and the second two are creating more complications for the world.”

The IMF’s fiscal monitor estimates that the U.S. deficit for 2024 will reach 6.67% of GDP, rising to 7.06% in 2025 – double the 3.5% in 2015.

Gopinath said that the IMF’s annual “Article IV” review of U.S. economic policies in coming weeks will again recommend that the U.S. raise tax revenues and reform its costly Social Security and Medicare programs for older Americans to bring down deficits.

Or maybe we could try getting spending in line with revenues for a change.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: House Buying Costs Hit New Record High.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Pro-Palestinian Activists Dig In and Fan Out, as D.C. Pivots Toward Israel.

The events, played out across three different cities, were yet another sign that the fierce debates around the Israel-Hamas war engulfing college campuses, U.S. businesses and the 2024 election are here to stay. Washington’s swift pivot in recent days toward more financial and military support for Israel has only emboldened calls among pro-Palestinian groups to take to the streets in the pursuit of a permanent cease-fire and suspension of U.S. aid to Israel.

“The reason you’re seeing more direct action take place—different ways to defund projects and governments, disrupt businesses and disrupt things the government actually does care about—is because they’re not listening to us,” said Ashish Prashar, a pro-Palestinian activist based in New York and a former adviser to Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who became the Middle East peace envoy representing the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in 2007.

“That’s why the movement is taking more direct action, directly to the citizens themselves, because that’s where they see the most influence happening,” Prashar said.

The push is expected to only intensify as the election nears. Pro-Palestinian organizers are planning mass protests in Chicago outside the Democratic National Convention in August, where Biden’s party will formally declare him its 2024 presidential nominee.

The news reports keep using “pro-Palestinian” but the protestors are pro-Hamas.

LAWFARE: Trump’s Fate Could Be Determined This Week. “The Democrats’ lawfare strategy against Donald Trump may be thwarted this week, as the Supreme Court is poised to hear arguments on Trump’s case on presidential immunity on Thursday, which could affect several of Trump’s trials.”

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Hailed to the King, Baby.

ALL OUR INSTITUTIONS HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED: Has No One Noticed 1st Amendment Foe Katherine Maher Chairs the Board of ‘Free Speech’ Signal Foundation?

SO NEXT TIME THEY’LL BE BOLDER: Anti-Israel protesters who blocked Golden Gate Bridge for hours released without charges.

INFLATION IS ILLUSORY, TRANSITORY, A HIGH-CLASS PROBLEM, AND OVER ALREADY:

BREAKING: The median monthly U.S. housing payment hit an all-time high of $2,747 during the four weeks ending April 7, up 11% from a year earlier, per Redfin.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 19, 2024

BREAKING: Man Sets Himself on Fire Outside Trump Court House.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, HOW DID YOU ENJOY THE SHOW? Hollywood Out of Ideas, Money, Jobs.

I understand there’s a certain amount of irony in complaining that all the trailers were a sequel or a reboot before a movie that was a sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a reboot, but usually Alamo has more varied trailer fare.

But that lack of originality, along with wokeness, the red ink carnage of the streaming wars, and the lingering effects of the most recent strikes, has led to a deep recession in Hollywood, so much so that Deadline has a regular Hollywood Contraction feature.

How bad is it? “Employment in “motion picture and sound recording” has grown nationwide, but the share of workers in LA or New York went from just under half at the beginning of 2023 to just one-third earlier this year.”

If the movies were worth going to the theater for, this wouldn’t be a problem.

EVEN THE KANGAROOS ARE IMPRESSED: Judge Merchan Let an Anti-Trumper Who Lied Onto the Jury.

THERE BIDEN GOES AGAIN, RESTORING YET MORE OF OUR STANDING ON THE WORLD STAGE: ‘They wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky’: Outraged Papua New Guinea academics lash out at Biden’s ‘unacceptable’ suggestion that cannibals ate his WW2 pilot uncle.

FAIL, BRITANNIA: UK Police Arrest Man for ‘Hamas Is Terrorist’ Sign.

WE CAN STILL FACT-CHECK YOUR A**:

Hi @Reuters,
I am not a pro-Palestinian protestor
I am an Israeli Arab who is surrounded by policemen to protect me after I was attacked at a demonstration by terror supporters, I am on the way to file a complaint about the attack…
And one more thing you forgot to mention -… pic.twitter.com/xIEwXVJwCU

— יוסף חדאד – Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 19, 2024

Spoiler: Reuters has no desire to be a credible news outlet.

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: A Funny Thing Happened on California’s Road to Recovery…

NICE OF THEM, THREE YEARS AFTER DISMISSING TRUMP’S ABRAHAM ACCORDS: White House Makes Fresh Push for Historic Deal to Forge Saudi-Israel Ties.

HMM: Trial of Ex-FBI Informant Tied to Biden Bribery Allegations Postponed Until After Election.

YOU DON’T SAY: IMF sounds alarm on ballooning US national debt: ‘Something will have to give.’

Under current policies, public debt in the U.S. is projected to nearly double by 2053. The IMF identified “large fiscal slippages” in the U.S. in 2023, with government spending surpassing revenue by 8.8% of GDP – a 4.1% increase from the previous year, despite strong economic growth.

If this trend continues, the Congressional Budget Office anticipates the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion in the next decade. Higher interest rates are also compounding the pain of higher debt.

Should that debt materialize, it could risk America’s economic standing in the world.

The IMF is talking down to Washington like we’re a Third World country because that’s the direction Washington is taking us.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: White House Blows Up as Israel Hits Iran. “There’s an old joke about how the New York Times would announce the end of the world. ‘World to End Tomorrow; Women and Minorities Affected Most.’ I’m here to tell you today that the real ‘victims’ of Israel’s Thursday night airstrikes on Iran are in the Biden White House — and just two miles away in Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood.”

THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BUBBLE DEFLATES: Tesla shares tumble below $150 per share, giving up all gains made over the past year. “On Thursday, Deutsche Bank joined other industry analysts in voicing concern over Musk’s big bet on autonomous vehicles as it stripped the company of its ‘buy’ rating, citing Tesla’s ‘change of strategic priority to Robotaxi.'”