Economic News, or We're All Going to Die!!!! Or Not. I'm not a Psychic.

April 2, 2025 was Liberation Day, the day that Trump's tariff offensive against the world started. Absent any real numbers, the press focused on the stock market's reaction as proof that it was a bad and destructive thing. Well...

There goes that narrative. Stocks are now back to where they were on April 2 one month later.

Are stocks the economy? No. It's somewhere between investment, speculation, and gambling, and the more time goes on, the more I think it's closer to gambling than anything else. What else is there?

Well, how about this? The below is the 2-year bond yield on US Treasuries over the last three months.

This is important because the 2-year bonds are the main vehicle of financing US debt, and it's lost 50 basis points since Trump took office. The US has a current debt of nearly $37 trillion. 50 basis points saved on that matters when refinancing bonds and directly affecting the amount of interest payments. We're currently at a point where interest payments on debt are probably going to be more than $1 trillion a year. That's more than the DOD's entire budget of about $850 billion.

Shaving down interest rates has an outsized effect on our deficit, and it's why Trump has been so vocal against Fed Chair Powell, an officer who reports to Secretary of the Treasury, Bessent. (Tangentially, Trump does have the power to fire Powell. It's a minor theme of the employment lawsuits going around right now.) The Fed directs interest rates, and the Fed's rates are well out of alignment with market rates, indicating a necessary cut (you know, what Powell rushed to do in October of last year in order to try and help Kamala Harris win the presidency).

Okay, but what else? Who cares about interest rates? I don't really care, even though I know I should. How about this:

There it is:
Native-born workers: +1.04 million
Foreign-born workers: -410,000 pic.twitter.com/SkHM1GnTgN

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 2, 2025

One of the lesser talked about parts of the Biden economy was the growth of jobs at the expense of people who were born here in favor of those who weren't. You can see that in the graph where the red line (foreign workers) was consistently above the growth of the green line (native workers), but this last month saw a sharp change, news brought about by the 177,000 April employment numbers.

There is no one number that can indicate the strength of the economy, but the GDP numbers for Q1 (when you actually look under the baseline -.3%) was actually pretty good, employment seems to be moving in the right direction, and bond yields seem to indicate better management of federal debt.

We are just over 100 days into Trump's presidency. He walked in with what he saw as a mandate to shake things up. We've gotten a lot of noise about how it's all bad, but...all I'm really seeing is signs of hope.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 04:15 PM | Comments (354) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Germany Channels Its Inner Nazi And Makes One Of The Most Popular Political Parties A Legal Target

Sound familiar?

What's next? An arson attack on the German Parliament building that will be blamed on AfD?

German Spy Agency Officially Classifies AfD Party as 'Extremist'

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has officially classified the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as extremist.
Having regarded the AfD as a suspected extremist movement since 2021, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), on May 2 designated the populist party as “right-wing extremist,” following an “intensive and comprehensive expert examination.”

This means that intelligence services now have the right to keep it under surveillance.

BfV said in a statement that AfD’s approach to ethnicity is “not compatible with the free democratic basic order.”

According to BfV’s statement, AfD does not consider German nationals with a migration background from Muslim-origin countries as equal members of the German people.

Here is the AdF's statement on German citizenship. It looks a bit different than how they are described in the media.

I know...I know... it's impossible for the 4th Estate to be anything but perfectly neutral and aboveboard. Yet here we are!

The German people made AfD one of the most popular parties in Germany, and clearly the elites in Germany can't tolerate having mere citizens deciding the fate of the country.

Are there true extremists in AfD? Of course. Just like there are true extremists in every single political party on earth. But it is curious that the lunatic violent environmentalists who want Germany back in the stone age aren't classified as extremists. And it is curious that the remnants of the communists who routinely surveilled, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered their fellow Germans aren't classified as extremists. And it is most curious that the Muslims openly advocating for sharia law in Germany are not classified as extremists.

And...Is AfD anti-Semitic and anti-Israel? Uh... not any more than most of Europe!

And AfD and Israel have common cause...they both see militant Islam as an existential danger. And that is in stark contrast to the ruling party: CDU never met a murdering Islamist they didn't like!

So maybe Germany should be allowed their opinions on foreigners taking over their country. Obviously they need Donald Trump to run for Chancellor. Maybe he can clean up Germany's border after he fixes ours!

Posted by: CBD at 02:45 PM | Comments (424) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Parallels

It is common for people to draw parallels and comparisons between whatever or whoever is happening now and whatever and whoever happened before. The greater the event or the man, the more people will go looking for historical parallels. Even loose parallels are still embraced as a way to contextualize and explain whatever is happening now. We see this all the time with events and men alike. "Not since X" or "best since Y" or "worst since Z" are all very normal things to see.

When something becomes a cultural touchstone, it will inevitably become a common point for drawing historical parallels. COVID was compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu (or less often, the 1968 flu outbreak). 9/11 is the touchstone for terror attacks here and abroad. The October 7 attacks were described in many countries as "Israel's 9/11" because 9/11 is the touchstone. Depending on your political preferences, Biden was the worst president since Carter or the greatest president Roosevelt (or various others). The comparison made most often and most loudly for the past decade, however, is also the stupidest.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 01:30 PM | Comments (372) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nope! You Don't Hate The Media Enough.

U.S. payroll growth totals 177,000 in April, defying expectations

Job growth was stronger than expected in April despite worries over the impact of President Donald Trump's blanket tariffs against U.S. trading partners.

Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 177,000 for the month, slightly below the downwardly revised 185,000 in March but above the Dow Jones estimate for 133,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. [Bolding mine]

Do you want direct evidence of the media's hatred of President Trump and their manipulation of their reporting to demonize him?

There it is!

The administration is not enacting "blanket tariffs." The news is filled with their constant offers to negotiate, their willingness to change tariffs based on actual data, and their obvious recognition that tariffs are both an economic and geopolitical tool.

"Blanket tariffs" is simply wrong, and an obvious attempt to reduce the efforts of the administration to simplistic, jingoistic, and rigid.

And there is more! Think back to the years of Glorious Leader Biden...how often did the media cite downward revisions in data? I can't recall a single report! They simply glossed over the constant revisions, because they were in the bag for the administration.

Every time the media vomits up this sort of manipulative nonsense, remind yourself that it is bought and paid for by the Democrat/Progressive apparatus. The media are whores, and cheap ones at that.

Posted by: CBD at 12:15 PM | Comments (392) | Trackbacks (Suck)

NY Times is Concerned About China Dumping Subsidized Goods on Europe Due to Trump’s Tariffs

The New York Times has excoriated President Trump for trying to disengage the US economy from our mercantilist reliance on cheap Chinese goods. But for all its enmity toward Trump and his trade policies, the Times is concurrently worried that Europe might find itself in an unfavorable trade relationship with China – a trade relationship like the awful one from which President Trump is trying to extract the U.S.

Other than being driven by intense, partisan animus toward Donald Trump, it seems inexplicable that the paper of record would be concerned about Europe surrendering economic sovereignty to China, while at the same time being passionately opposed to America exerting its own economic sovereignty. Isn’t the Times being hypocritical?

No, the NY Times is not being hypocritical. It is very consistent in being rabidly anti-American. Therefore, being concerned about Europe retaining an industrial economy while cheering against American industry is quite principled for the voice of the left. It may be vulgar and offensive, but it’s consistent with the Times’ America-Last principles.

First off, here are some of the typical recent headlines the NY Times has been running as it contemptuously covers Trump’s economic agenda:

“Trump’s Tariffs Will Wound Free Trade” [NY Times – 4/14/2025]

“Why Trump’s Economic Disruptions Will be Hard to Reverse” [NY Times – 4/28/2025]

“Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Wave of Lawsuits as States and Businesses Fight Back” [NY Times – 4/27/2025]

“Bracing for a Slow-Moving, Self-Inflicted Economic Storm” [NY Times – 4/25/2025]

But amidst those stories blasting “Trump’s tariffs” and his efforts to rebuild American industry, the Times ran this story:

“Why Europe Fears a Flood of Cheap Goods from China; President Trump’s tariffs on China could lead to a hazardous scenario for European countries: the dumping of artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries.” [NY Times - 4/14/2025]

Just a quick fisking of that headline and sub-headline is revealing.

“Europe fears a flood of cheap Goods from China.” I don’t blame them, because a flood of cheap Chinese goods has done great harm to America.

“A hazardous scenario for European countries: The dumping of artificially cheap products that could undermine local industries.” Correct! China dumping artificially cheap products on America has undermined local American industries. What is so telling is that the Times is OK with cheap, subsidized products undermining American industries, and they want it to continue. Their concern is that Donald Trump may make it impossible for China to dump on us any longer, and that China may start dumping on Europe instead. That is a problem to the NY Times.

Here is some of the body of that story.

China has for years presented an economic challenge for Europe. Now, it could become an economic disaster. It produces a vast array of artificially cheap goods — heavily subsidized electric vehicles, consumer electronics, toys, commercial grade steel and more — but much of that trade was destined for the endlessly voracious American marketplace.

Per the Times, it’s OK for China to dump subsidized goods on the U.S. because we have a “voracious” marketplace. Their fear is that Europe might also have a voracious appetite for goods subsidized by a communist country artificially supporting its manufacturing.

With many of those goods now facing an extraordinary wall of tariffs thanks to President Trump, fear is rising that more products will be dumped in Europe, weakening local industries in France, Germany, Italy and the rest of the European Union.

Again, the Times is OK with China having already weakened local industries in the U.S. Their concern is that Trump’s tariffs might cause China to weaken local industries throughout their beloved European Union.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (393) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Freight Yard
Zoltan Sepeshy

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (378) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 5/ 2 /25

Good morning kids. Well, if it's a day ending in "Y" that means we have yet another Democrat Leftist dog-whistling or in this case overtly calling for violence against President Trump and anyone who supports him. And that is figuratively "half" the nation and in actual numbers likely much more than that.

A high school English teacher in Maine has allegedly called for the Secret Service and U.S. military to assassinate President Donald Trump, his supporters, and top Trump advisors.

JoAnna St. Germain, who teaches at Waterville Senior High School, appears to have made the concerning remarks on her Facebook page, prompting investigations by police and the school district where she is employed.

I doubt she'll receive anything more than a slap on the wrist, but in the highly unlikely event she does lose her job, she can always go teach at Harvard or Berkeley. Where she can be free to teach Jew-baiting, anti-Americanism and Chi-Com indoctrination to her black heart's delight. Unless of course President Trump's efforts at exposing and dismantling of the Pre-K to Post-graduate indoctrination machine can run unimpeded for the remainder of his term and continue indefinitely. the destruction of American academia has been going on for nearly a century or more, from Horace Mann and John Dewey to Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School and through the malign influence of Bill Ayers and his coven of corruptors. So, preventing further brainwashing and hopefully deprogramming the past two or three generations of those who came through the school systems is not going to happen overnight, and certainly not without a fight, that given the words of this stain in Maine, could and likely will get physical. Burning tesla dealerships, and sleeping subway riders, if not entire cities circa the summer of 2020 should be your first hint.

In any case, the goal of dismantling of the Federal Department of Education and its horrendous excesses and abuse seems to be well under way.

The Trump administration this week slashed $1 billion in so-called “mental health” grants for educational institutions, many of which were going to promote leftist ideology and train leftist activists.

The Education Department confirmed Wednesday that it was making cuts to grants handed out by the Biden administration ostensibly for the purpose of “mental health” because of the focus of many of the recipients on racially-focused programs. In a notice to Congress, the administration said it was going to “re-envision and re-compete” the funds allocated for mental health at schools in a gun control bill signed by former [puppet] President Joe Biden. . .

. . . The move was first reported on Tuesday by Christopher Rufo, who wrote on X that there would be “no more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.”

On the economic front, despite the constant gescrhei from the Democrat propaganda complex that Trump is destroying the economy, While the tariff regime will yield some bumps in the road, there are indicators that the situation and outlook are a hell of a lot rosier than what is being reported.

Larry Kudlow says the recession talk sweeping through Wall Street and the press is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the latest GDP numbers — and a refusal to acknowledge the early effects of President Trump’s economic agenda.

On his Fox Business Network show Wednesday, Kudlow took direct aim at what he described as a “media and Wall Street obsession” with the headline 0.3 percent decline in real GDP during the first quarter of 2025. . .

. . . Kudlow pointed to what he called “core GDP” — a measure that strips out volatile components like inventories, government spending, and net exports. That narrower but more stable measure, known formally as real final sales to private domestic purchasers, rose at an annual rate of around 3 percent in the first quarter.

“Mr. Trump has barely begun, but take a look already at core GDP — which takes out the fluky trade import numbers from tariff front running and looks at just the heart of GDP, which is private sector consumption plus private sector business investment,” Kudlow said. “Well, looking at core GDP, you see an actual increase in the first-quarter economy — of 3 percent, no less.”

Of course Kudlow is a friend and ally of Trump having served in his first term. But he's also a shrewd and astute business guru who wouldn't stick his neck out for no good reason, as he does value his own reputation.

And as you can see from the links, there are major companies coming back to the US and once again setting up shop, which means jobs and long term investment here in the USA.

As we all know, or should know, economics and geopolitics are tied at the hip. It's no secret that the Chi-Coms have long sought to dethrone America and become the preeminent global superpower. Trump knows this and much of what he is doing vis a vis tariffs and other moves (such as the Panama Canal, Greenland and in the Middle East are intended not only to boost our domestic and foreign positions but to check the ChiComs.

On that note, this story is of some interest:

Workers throughout China are flooding the streets in revolt as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs slam the fragile Chinese export economy.

From the cramped streets of Sichuan in the southwest to the cold outskirts of Inner Mongolia in the northeast, furious workers are demanding backpay and protesting mass layoffs as factories shutter under pressure from Trump’s tariffs. . .

. . .The wave of anger sweeping across China today echoes the uprising in 2022 when Chinese citizens protested President Xi Jinping’s COVID lockdown orders. Xi’s forces quickly cracked down on dissent, leading to violent clashes across the country. China watchers anticipate Xi will take action again. “Xi today has the same mentality as Mao. His bottom line is that no major crisis will be allowed to endanger his hold on power,” an adviser to the Chinese government told the Journal.

There are a lot of internal problems within Red China that potentially pose a threat to the CCP. The one-child policy means a majority of the population will be elderly and not able to keep their industry and economy going and growing. The introduction of even very tightly controlled capitalist reforms instituted under Premier Deng Xiaoping a generation ago have given Chinese youth a taste of western freedom and they prefer it. The level of corruption in their government down especially to the local levels. Over the past few years there have been many mass-stabbing attacks primarily aimed at the children of local party bosses and politburo members.

There are also reported morale problems in their military as well as graft and incompetence that is reflected in their military readiness and quality of their arms and armed forces, and a gigantic real estate bubble that when it bursts could crash their economy big time. Now Trump comes along and the anticipated Chinese century that was supposed to happen with the coming of the new millennium could go up in smoke. This kind of situation on the mainland could also put Taiwan in the crosshairs perhaps sooner than expected.

I'm not predicting the Chinese Communist Party will collapse any time soon. But who knew that the Soviet Union would ever fall when it did, if at all. Hopefully, for the sake of the suffering Chinese people, the CCP disintegrates. And let's hope our own egghead schmucks in Foggy Bottom don't repeat the same insanity in dealing with whatever government arises from the ashes as it did with Russia post the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yeah, that is too much to ask for.

But a free China; what a concept!

We may yet see a Free Iran before then, please God without a mass release of Roentgens and X-rays as a result.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Have a great weekend.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Welcome to a community in Texas - where the Constitution is not welcome. (Meh, AKA every Democrat run city and state - jjs)
  EPIC City – Caliphate Blueprint USA
  
• The wave of anger sweeping across China today echoes the uprising in 2022 when Chinese citizens protested President Xi Jinping’s COVID lockdown orders. Xi’s forces quickly cracked down on dissent, leading to violent clashes across the country. China watchers anticipate Xi will take action again.

  China Erupts: Furious Workers Riot As Factories Collapse Under Trump’s Tariffs

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:32 AM | Comments (460) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 2 May 2025

Top Story

• After years of ripping off developers by taking a cut of off-platform payments for transactions they had no part in, and then when courts ruled against them, more years of making things deliberately and systematically worse for everyone, a federal judge finally had enough and nuked Apple. (The Verge) (archive site)
  
  The ruling is crystal clear: Apple can not demand any cut of off-platform payments, nor can they add roadblocks for developers or for end users.
  
  That was just yesterday. Spotify is already moving its payment processing away from Apple, and Patreon plans to do the same.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (169) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Morons Of The World Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your ONT!

Greetings Horde! You think you hate the media enough, but you don't

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (402) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Monty Hall Problem

A great many of you remember the game show, “Let’s Make a Deal,” and many of you are probably familiar with “The Monty Hall Problem,” named for the show’s host.

This is a logic problem that seems to have an illogical answer, but I finally figured out a way to understand it.

Let’s say you are a contestant on “Let’s Make a Deal.” Monty tells you that behind one door is a new car, but behind each of the other two doors is a goat. You have to choose one door. We can all agree that your odds are 1 in 3 of choosing the door with the new car. For argument’s sake, let’s say you choose door #3.

Whether or not you chose the door which hides the car, there is a 100% chance that there is a goat behind at least one of the other two doors. Monty then opens one of those doors, revealing a goat. In this case we’ll say it’s door #1. Monty then offers you the opportunity to change your door from door #3 to door #2. Should you do so?

The answer is “Yes.” Your odds will increase from 33% to 67% if you switch.

When I first heard about this, I could not wrap my brain around it. In my mind, there is a 1 in 3 chance I chose the correct door, and since Monty always had a door with a goat behind it to challenge my initial choice, I couldn’t see how my odds would change once Monty revealed a goat. So I actually played it out, and that’s when it all made sense.

If I initially chose the correct door - a 33% chance - I would always lose once I changed doors after being shown the goat.

But if I initially chose one of the two wrong doors - a 67% chance - I would always switch to the correct door after being shown the goat.

Therefore, my odds switch from 33% to 67% of correctly choosing the new car.

So back to our example, if you chose door #3 and the car was actually behind door #3, you would lose after switching. But if you chose door #3 and the car was behind either door #1 or door #2, you would be guaranteed to choose the winning door after the goat was revealed and you switched doors.

Here’s a little of Monty’s dealmaking. Also, open thread.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 08:06 PM | Comments (335) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Thursday Evening Wholesome Cafe [Doof]

(Cafe mystery click?)

Howdy Hordelings! This evening's cafe is chock full of wholesome content. Hope you enjoy it!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:15 PM | Comments (228) | Trackbacks (Suck)

No, I Will Not Be Doing That

My company moved to a new email system for some damn reason, and today was the day they switched over. They sent clear, detailed instructions on how to get it set up on your phone (No, really. Step by step, screenshots and everything. Should have been bulletproof). I was following them when suddenly I was not seeing what the instructions said I should be seeing, so I called the help desk.

The guy that answered was friendly, and he asked me to download an ap called Beyondtrust which would allow him to remotely control my phone and finish the install.

I said no.

“Look, can you just tell me how to fix it? I trust you (and I do) but I just really hate giving remote control of my electronics to anyone. I'm not an idiot, I first went online in the early 90s with an Atari ST series computer. I've never been phished, never been hacked because I'm really leery of stuff like this, always have been. Can you talk me through it please?”

And he did, and we resolved the install. I get that it would have been easier for him to just take over, but...

Is it just me? Am I being stupid in a world where NSA knows everything about me and I carry a device around with me that tracks my location 24/7 and can easily be used to eavesdrop on me? My college age son thinks I'm nuts (Dad, anyone can find anything about you any time they want, why bother trying to hide?). He's not wrong, yet still I persist with my instincts from the stone age of the world wide web. Thoughts?

Posted by: WeirdDave at 05:00 PM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trash News

Earlier this month, Bloomberg published an article about declining male enrollment in American colleges and universities. They weren't alone - the story was also available on wire services and popped up on various newspapers - but Bloomberg's article was notable in how messy it is and what it attempts to raise in reader's mind - and what it attempts to have the reader never consider.

The pattern usually goes like this: state some facts, state some more tangentially-related or unrelated facts, stoke some fear and depend on nobody saying to himself, "wait a moment, what's missing? Are these things actually related? Why is this article trying to scare me?" We see this all the time in the American press.

Men opting out of college isn't a new phenomenon: Women have outnumbered men in undergraduate enrollment for about 40 years, and the gap continues to widen. Almost half of women age 25-34 have earned a bachelor's degree, according to Pew Research Center data; for men the rate is 37%. Between 2011 and 2022, the number of Americans attending college dropped by 1.2 million, with men accounting for almost the entirety of that drop.
As US men forgo higher education, the demographic group as a whole has lost ground in other areas too. Working-class men today are less likely to be employed than they were four decades ago, their inflation-adjusted wages have barely budged in more than 50 years ... Men with a college degree or higher still earn roughly 200% of what men without a diploma do, census data show.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 03:30 PM | Comments (451) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Disney Thread!

"TJM, you've posted so much this week, but nary a word about movies? Are you okay?"

Yes, I'm fine. All is well, but I've held off long enough. The boss put out Disney threads from time to time, so I will limit myself to one Disney thread this whole week.

So, let's talk about Thunderbolts*.

It comes out this week, and tracking is...not great:

Currently, U.S. and Canada presales for Thunderbolts* stands at $12M+, which is on pace with another first installment MCU movie, 2021's Eternals ($71.2M). The presales figure is also ahead of that year's Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings ($75.3M) and behind this year's Captain America: Brave New World ($88.8M). Hence, the current opening projection on Thunderbolts* is $70M-$75M domestic at 4,300 theaters, with another $90M-$100M abroad.

How to Watch the Marvel Movies in Chronological Order
Like previous MCU titles, the expected draws are males over and under 25. Given that Thunderbolts* is largely Florence Pugh's movie, it will be interesting to see if her Little Women and Don't Worry Darling female fanbase shows up; women under 25 are currently trailing men under 25 in first choice.

Look at these star-fucking losers thinking that Florence Pugh is a box office draw.

Assuming a $70 million opening, one can expect the film to end up with somewhere between $200 and $250 million total US box office. Maybe the same worldwide for a total between $400 million and $500 million. That's a lot of money.

But then you have to do the actual calculation to figure out how much Disney needs to make to break even. The marketing budget will be at least $100 million. The purported budget is $180 million (though, that number is old and there were at least two sets of reshoots, last summer and then last November, reportedly not nearly as extensive as the last Captain America movie). So, that's, bare minimum, a $280 million investment that Disney needs to get back from box office receipts it shares with theaters.

It needs to make, at least, $466 million to break even.

Disney may get that. Maybe. And that's why major studios greenlight giant films: to maybe make their money back.

Out of the top ten movies so far of 2025, Disney has four of them. That's not bad, is it? Well, one of them is Moana 2, which came out last year (and is a genuine, big hit for the studio, lots of cash). The other three are Snow White with $200 million total worldwide so far (on a $350 million, at least, budget), Mufasa: The Lion King (also released last year and a solid, though not great, hit, for the studio, it most likely made its money back at $722 million total worldwide), and Captain America: Brave New World ($414 million at a cost of, most likely $350-380 million to produce, not even market).

Disney more and more reminds me of MGM from the 1950s, easily the biggest movie studio of the time with the biggest hits, but unable to actually turn a profit because their spectacle musicals were so expensive and their sets so badly run that the studio under Louis B. Meyer simply could not make enough money. It's why they sold their library to television that decade. They needed the money.

Disney is a deeply unhealthy film studio right now, and Thunderbolts* does not look like it's going to reverse any of the issues. Maybe Fantastic Four: The First Steps will do it?

Early tracking is not clear (I saw something about a $64 million opening, which would be horrible, but marketing has only started and the number will probably go up, assuming that number is accurate at all), but I'm sure the cast is on board with trying to expand the fanbase as much as possible. Let's see what Pedro Pascal, Mr. Fantastic himself Reed Richards, had to say recently. He couldn't possibly have done something like Rachel Zeigler in the run-up to Snow White's opening, right?

Pedro Pascal blasted #HarryPotter author J.K. Rowling for her latest trans tweets, calling the author a "heinous loser" in a comment on Instagram https://t.co/Eqoo5oceZq pic.twitter.com/osbWOLbyfx

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) April 24, 2025

Okay...maybe not.

Below, I saw Captain America: Brave New World, and I had thoughts. I felt like this was the best place for them.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 02:20 PM | Comments (260) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mike Waltz Rumored to be Leaving his position as NSA, along with his aide, Alex Wong

From Trent Crimm, the Independent:

Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their roles, CBS News first reported, in the first major shakeup of Trump's White House.

It was "made clear" to Waltz earlier this week that his time leading the National Security Council had come to an end," CNN reported. Questions have swirled about Waltz's role after it was revealed that he added a journalist to a chat on the Signal app detailing military strikes. The chat involved high-ranking military and administration members and news of the breach became a blunder for the White House.

(No, it was not written by Trent Crimm. I chose The Independent story to quote for the Ted Lasso reference purely.)

I was intrigued to discover that the Signal controversy has actually continued in the past few weeks, mostly with news that Hegseth...has another controversy! He might have shared sensitive information with former Fox News personalities! (All of whom work for him at the DOD).

This third Signal chat involved not only Hegseth's wife, who was also a former Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet, but also his senior adviser and spokesperson Sean Parnell, and Tami Radabaugh, who was a former Fox executive producer and close friend of Rauchet's, and now works as Hegseth's deputy assistant for public affairs at the Department of Defense, according to The Washington Post.

While, it is unclear what was precisely being discussed in this third group and it is not known if that chat remains active or not, as per Washington Post.

Adam Smith, representative from Washington, is very mad that Republicans won't repeat Russian Collusion and spend years of committee time looking into this.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told Morning Edition that House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans blocked any inquiry resolutions into the matter because they know Hegseth and his actions are "indefensible." Smith filed a resolution of inquiry, which allows a member of the House to force an investigation even when they're in the minority.

It should be remembered that Waltz was never the target of calls for resignation and investigation. Here's Elizabeth Warren calling for Hegseth to resign:

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 01:10 PM | Comments (292) | Trackbacks (Suck)

EPA cancels 781 Environmental Justice Grants because Trump is a big ole meanie who ran on just this sort of thing, and you should be super mad about it

You regretting your vote yet, MAGAts?!

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.

This push to kill government grants to leftist organizations, I think, has the potential for being the largest, undertold story of the second Trump administration.

I see numbers like 781 grants being canceled, and I just...wonder. There's no information about how much money that represents, but the EPA gives out $4 billion a year in grants. Those grants can be less than $100,000 to small orgs, $1 million to other governments, or bigger. So, this could be maybe a few million dollars or a couple of billion. Probably somewhere in between. I would guess the 781 represents a few tens of millions, tops.

But, that's tens of millions of dollars designed to prop up a leftist ecosystem of lawyers and activists to fight for leftist causes. This creates a system of support for government action and social coercion that wouldn't exist otherwise.

And grants are being cut everywhere. The USAID cuts got the most attention ($40 billion), but every agency has this sort of thing, and every agency is cutting back.

Combine that with the Democrats' efforts to alienate as much of the American public as possible since the Obama's first election, and you've got an interesting mix that we haven't seen the fruits of yet.

I can't make predictions, but I can say...it might be interesting.

We'll see.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 12:00 PM | Comments (291) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Well. THAT was quick!

Reality is a stone-cold b*tch, and the stark reality of the Canadian economy is that it is almost completely reliant on America. Posturing about independence and reorienting Canuckistan's economy away from the United States and toward the EU and South America and the Pacific rim and blah, blah, blah sounds good as election soundbites, but as real policy? Not so much.

With Election Over, Canada Seeks Trade Deal Day With Trump

President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reached out to him personally just one day after winning the country’s recent election, which proves that Canada is already eager to re-engage on trade.

Speaking to reporters, Trump described the conversation in clear terms: “He called me up yesterday. He said, ‘Let’s make a deal.’” Trump explained that the outreach came even though, during the election campaign, both leading Canadian candidates had publicly taken anti-Trump positions. “They both hated Trump,” he said. “And it was the one that hated Trump, I think, the least that won.”

Whether this is wishcasting on President Trump's part remains to be seen, but the damage to the Canadian economy if Carney does not negotiate a comprehensive fair trade agreement will be profound, and much worse than any damage done to our economy.

Carney is a globalist technocrat, with a soft spot in his heart (but not his wallet) for anti-capitalist nonsense, like "Occupy Wall Street!" He is a liberal who is not a fan of American dominance of the world economy. Or, if one wants to be less polite, he is a "Champagne Socialist."

But the Canadian economy is circling the drain, so Carney must act. And the only sane policy for an economy with a GDP smaller than that of Texas is to accommodate President Trump's requirements. Sure, there will be negotiation so that Carney doesn't look like he is bending the knee, but if he is smart, he will indeed bend the knee.

And I want to see the video!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (260) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Crow with Peaches
Henry Lee McFee

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (302) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 5/ 1 /25

Good morning kids. May, already. New month but the lawlessness of the judiciary now reaches a level of danger that potentially poses an actual mortal threat to the citizenry.

A federal judge ordered that the suspect behind the firebombing of a Tesla dealership in Kansas City, Missouri, be released from federal custody ahead of his upcoming court date. . .

. . . McIntire’s lawyers also argued that he be released, noting his “medical and mental health needs.”McIntire has reportedly “been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder,” Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), depression, and gender dysphoria, according to court records.

Even if this cupcake doesn't firebomb other Tesla dealerships before he shows up to court, that is IF he ever shows up for a court date. The message this judge sent is quite clear.

As clear as the red flag waved by Jamie Raskin:

Union workers are much like activists — they do the bidding of their slave masters. The “master” in this instance is Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). Journalist and conservative commentator Jack Posobiec was assaulted by a bunch of union cowards on Tuesday after Posobiec asked Raskin two questions during a “Democrat union workers rally,” according to The Post Millennial.

“Jamie, why did you lose the popular vote?” Posobiec asked before following up. “Why did you lose every single swing state?”

Once Raskin pointed Posobiec out and began non-sensically chanting “USA! USA!” multiple union workers engulfed Posobiec, began swearing at him, and assaulted him, also knocking his camera phone out of his hand.

Well, cancer is as cancer does. And F*ck Cancer. Literally.

And then there is plain old insurrection.

Police in Florida have been ordered to stop enforcing immigration law in that state, a federal judge ruled this week.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled that an order blocking police from enforcing state immigration law applies to all local authorities. According to Fox News, Williams also told “attorneys for the state during a hearing in Miami on Tuesday that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction against a statute that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.”

Over to you Governor De Santis. Why have you not directed your state agencies to ignore this judge and why has US AG Pam Bondi not had this hack in black sacked, arrested, defrocked and appropriately charged with dereliction of duty or whatever the crime may be.

This is how the civil society breaks down. And the Democrat/Leftists are loudly and proudly embracing it, as their party, causes and worldview are being rejected by more and more Americans. Despite this as we discussed on the latest episode of the podcast, they are choosing to rally around terrorists and illegal alien thugs while putting the most radical/insane people out there as the face and future of their party. Bernie Sanders, an ancient old white communist and the big bombed booby barmaid Titty-Caca Ocasio Cortez. And yet, Little Shitler David Hogg the co-chair of the party is about to be sacked. Either the Dems aren't bust out radical enough or they can't bamboozle America effectively enough to convince us that they're the sane choice.

On a different note, for those of you in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where severe storms moved through on Wednesday, causing several deaths and major power outages, we're hoping you and your loved ones were minimally affected and that you're back to normal routines this morning.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• A swift-moving line of severe thunderstorms developed into a derecho on the evening of April 29, wreaking havoc across the Ohio Valley and the interior Northeast. This weather phenomenon resulted in at least three deaths and widespread power outages. Pennsylvania bore the brunt with the highest number of outages.Particularly hard-hit areas included southeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Areas saw speeds typically associated with low-end tornadoes, but affected a broader region in this instance. “Wind gusts in some areas were nearly 80 mph. For some communities, this derecho could be a once-in-10-year or even a once-in-20-year event,” stated AccuWeather Meteorologist Alan Reppert.
  Destructive Derecho Claims 3 Lives, Leaves 700,000 Powerless
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s counterrevolution presses on—quietly, methodically, and morally—while a flailing opposition offers only chaos, debt, and deflection in response.
  The Trump Counterrevolution and the Moral Ledger

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 1 May 2025

Top Story

• AMD is reportedly preparing Ryzen 9000G desktop processors. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  These will be repurposed laptop chips just like previous G-series CPUs. The difference is that these will offer up to twelve Zen 5 cores (or more specifically four Zen 5 cores and eight of the slower Zen 5c cores) plus up to 16 GPU cores.
  
  And up to 256GB of RAM, since they are after all desktop chips and that's how much you can put in a regular desktop system these days.
  
  Judging by the prices of the laptops though I expect the top models to be expensive.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (162) | Trackbacks (Suck)