Treasury Secretary Bessent: We Have the Opportunity for a "Beautiful Rebalancing" of Trade With China; Tariffs Could be Lowered to 50-65%

Those tariffs are still beastly for China.

Trump talked about cutting the tariffs "substantially" down from the current 145% level.

US President Donald Trump has signaled a potential U-turn on his trade war with China amid continued market volatility, saying the high tariffs on Chinese goods will "come down substantially, but it won't be zero."

Trump's remarks, made at a White House news event Tuesday, appear to mark a rhetorical climbdown after weeks of tough posturing and tit-for-tat retaliation that sent tariffs on China beyond a staggering 145%.

"145% is very high and it won't be that high," Trump said in a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office. "It won't be anywhere near that high. It'll come down substantially. But it won't be zero."

Trump made the comments when asked about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's remarks earlier in the day that the high tariff rates between the United States and China have effectively embargoed trade between the economies.

Bessent said at a private investment conference hosted by JP Morgan Chase that the trade war with China is unsustainable and he expects the battle to de-escalate in the very near future, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

Instead of a hard break or complete decoupling between the United States and China, Bessent told investors that the goal is to have a rebalancing of trade, the source told CNN.

...

Trump's shift in tone also went viral on the Chinese internet. On Wednesday, the hashtag "Trump chickened out" was trending as a top topic on social media platform Weibo, racking up more than 150 million views.

This is CNN so of course they're promoting Chinese communist propaganda about the US president.

China insists it's not even negotiating with China, and won't negotiate until Trump cancels all tariffs on China.

Trump rejects that, for obvious reasons.

China has called on the US to cancel its sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods entering the country as a sign that the President Donald Trump is serious about resolving the trade war between the two countries.

A Chinese official said there had been no trade talks with the US, despite suggestions otherwise from the Trump administration.

The trade war between the world's two largest economies has been escalating, with China sending back Boeing planes it ordered from the US in its latest retaliation over tariffs.

But Trump has appeared to soften his stance on China, saying that the taxes he has so far imposed on Chinese imports would "come down substantially, but it won't be zero".

A trade war between China and the US is in full swing, with Trump imposing import taxes of up to 145% on Chinese goods coming into the US, and China hitting back with a 125% tax on American products.

In one of China's strongest statements yet over the tariff war, Commerce Ministry spokesman He Yadong said the US should remove all "unilateral tariff measures" against China "if it truly wanted" to solve the issue.

"The person who tied the bell must untie it," he added.

Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said China and the US had "not conducted consultations or negotiations on tariffs, let alone reached an agreement".

He added that reports to the contrary were "false".

Trump previously said negotiations between the countries were "active" - but this was also contradicted by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said on Wednesday they had not yet begun.

Bessent added that there was an opportunity for a "big deal" between the US and China on trade.

He has previously said he expected a de-escalation of the "unsustainable" trade war, and said the current situation was "not a joke".
Watch: Trump insists the US and China are having trade talks
Trump hints at softening China tariffs and says no plan to sack Fed boss
At a glance: Trump's tariffs on China, EU and rest of the world

Trump said on Tuesday that he would be "very nice" in negotiations with Beijing in the hope of securing a trade deal.

But following China's latest comments, he said on his Truth Social media platform "Boeing should default China for not taking the beautifully finished planes that China committed to purchase".

"This is just a small example of what China has done to the USA, for years," he added, before repeating accusations that synthetic opioid fentanyl "continues to pour into our country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people".

The boss of plane manufacturer Boeing revealed China had sent back aircraft it had ordered from the US as part of its retaliation to tariffs.

Treasury Secretary Bessent seems to believe China will negotiate.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there is "an incredible opportunity" for the US and China to achieve what he terms a "beautiful rebalancing" on Wednesday, at an event held by the Institute of International Finance Treasury.

Bessent spoke more about his call for a course correction for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and the "back to basics" approach Trump wants for the international economic order.

"The U.S. does not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem," Bessent told Tim Adams, president and CEO of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) Global Outlook Forum.

...

[BESSENT:] Alternatively, what I have said previously, there is an opportunity for a big deal here that the U.S. is looking to rebalance to more manufacturing. The identity of that would be less consumption. If China is serious, on less dependence on export-led manufacturing growth and a rebalancing toward a domestic economy. I think they use the term dual circulation. Well, it's right now it's really singular circulation. And if they want to rebalance, let's do it together. This is an incredible opportunity. And I think if the Bridgewater founder, Ray Dalio, were to write something, he could call it a beautiful rebalancing indeed.

Bessent agrees that one factor driving our trade deficits are our budget deficits -- we're always printing and spending more money than we have, which creates a "demand suck" bringing in imports.

He also talks about the dollar's position as the world's reserve currency driving up the value of the dollar and therefore raising the prices of US exports as well as creating that "demand suck" for foreign imports. See the link for that. (He doesn't want to give up the dollar's position as reserve currency.)

ADAMS: So you're already taking on the task of China, more consumption, less investment, dealing with their manufacturing excess capacity. Europe's a great opportunity, the U.S. rebalancing here, including on fiscal. So what do you want the IMF to do? What would you like to hear from Kristalina over the next couple of days or the board in a new direction? Again, back to factory settings direction. What do you want to hear from them?

BESSENT: Well, again, I think it's just been mission creep. And occasionally you have to trim your garden when the weeds grow. And I think that it's back to basics. What are our priorities and how are we going to judge success? And the World Bank, you discussed about graduating the medium-sized countries that should have graduated some time ago, that changes the commercial model of the World Bank. But obviously, you think that's important. They need to be graduated.

This is a good point:

ADAMS: Yes. I mean, it's just as President Trump says, it's common sense that you can't have the second largest economy in the world and... I applaud their rapid growth, but you don't get both. It's like the teenager who sometimes wants to be treated like a child, sometimes wants to be treated like an adult. And I got one of those, too. And it's an adult economy.

He means that small economies routinely have big trade surpluses (relative to their tiny size, I mean), but large economies tend to be more balanced as internal consumption catches up with exports for foreign markets. But China is manipulating things to keep pumping out exports like an undeveloped country while actually having the world's second-biggest economy.

I can't find a print article stating this, but Megyn Kelly claims that Trump is considering a cutting the tariffs to 50 or 65%. He also floated a scheme in which imports that don't threaten national security will be taxed at 35%, while those that do will be taxed at 100%.

Posted by: Ace at 04:25 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Media Claims That Trump Backs Tax Hike on Millionaires as Part of His "Big Beautiful Tax Bill;" Trump Says "No, I Don't"

I don't know if this was a real trial balloon or just another completely fabricated Democrat op.

Fox is claiming that "White House aides" floated the idea of creating a new highest income tax bracket for the wealthiest tax payers of something like 38%.

Rep. Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican, is supporting the White House's proposed tax hike for people making more than $1 million.

"I believe we must help the President deliver on his promise of a tax and regulatory plan that supports pro-American economic and manufacturing growth, and delivers for the vast majority of Americans -- while creating savings and promoting fiscal responsibility. Any adjustments in taxes to accomplish these goals should be considered," Meuser told Fox News Digital in a statement on Tuesday.

Last week, White House aides began quietly floating a proposal to House Republicans that would raise the tax rate to 40% for Americans making more than $1 million, sources told Fox News Digital about the preliminary discussions. The plan would shore up income to fund President Donald Trump's ambitious campaign promises to eliminate taxes on overtime, tips and Social Security.

On Thursday, Meuser said on "Mornings with Maria" that he suggested a less than 2% tax hike for the "wealthy, high-end income" tax bracket months ago. He noted that Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered the top tax rate from 39.6% to 37%, so raising it to 38.6% would still keep it below the pre-TCJA level by nearly one percentage point.

I don't know if support that or oppose it. I'm always against taxing "The rich" more, as they already pay the bulk of taxes.

But then, the rich keep voting for Democrats and keep voting against America and against American citizens, so sometimes I think: You want Democrat levels of taxation? You got it.

But we don't have to have this debate because Trump says he doesn't back any increases in taxes for any American citizen.

President Donald Trump appeared to rule out a proposal to raise taxes on millionaires, arguing they would flee the country over the policy.

"I think it would be very disruptive because a lot of millionaires would leave the country," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on April 23. "You'll lose a lot of money if you do that."

Trump allies such as Steve Bannon have supported raising taxes on the rich, but the president hadn't taken a position. Trump has suggested tariffs could potentially replace the income tax, even though economists warn that tariffs raise far less revenue and fall harder on lower-income households.

Some of you young readers may, like myself, not remember the Reagan Administration, because all of us 29-year-olds weren't born back then and wouldn't be born until the year 2000 or whatever.

But the Reagan White House, especially in its first few years, was a place of intrigue, as different factions attempted to hijack the Reagan agenda for themselves. Back then, it was mostly left-leaning Rockefeller Republicans who were attempting to restrain and contain Reagan and do some unauthorized policy freelancing.

The same thing is going on in the Trump White House, but there are fewer liberal Republicans, of course. It's a fight between Disruptors and Gradualists, the softer MAGA types who want change but who cringe at the thought of actually burning everything down.

And while I get the idea of punishing the rich, who largely don't vote with us any more, I'm a little concerned about where all of this ends up. Do we want to drive away all old-school Republicans? Do we really want to completely swap the old Republican base for the old Democrat base?

That does seem to be the plan pushed by some. But you know, as much as I get frustrated with scaredy-cat, smugly complacent old Republican base, I never loved the Democrat base all that much, either, and I'm not looking forward to the kinds of soft socialist policies we'd wind up pursuing if the party because majority working class Democrat.

Posted by: Ace at 03:18 PM | Comments (322) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Evidence Released Proves That "Maryland Father" and "Oriole State Husband" Kilmar Abrego-Garcia Is Definitely a Human Smuggler

Gee, why did the cops think that Abrego-Garcia was a human smuggler when they pulled over his car, loaded to the roof with immigrant men, none of whom had any luggage?

It wasn't just those circumstances, which are already highly suspicious.

It also turned out that Abrego-Garcia was driving a car owned by a known human smuggler used for human smuggling.

Who Abrego-Garcia admitted was "his boss."

Reported El Salvadoran stopped in car owned by alien who pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges

The owner of the car in which Kilmar Abrego Garcia was stopped by police is Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, who pleaded guilty to smuggling illegal aliens into the United States in 2020, two years before Garcia's deportation. Reyes himself was deported after the guilty plea and returned to the country illegally.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the deported El Salvadoran at the center of the Trump administration's immigration battle with the courts, was stopped by police in an SUV owned by a man who was himself deported after pleading guilty to smuggling illegal aliens in 2020, according to court and Homeland Security Department intelligence documents reviewed by Just the News.

These new details follow Just the News reporting last week that Abrego Garcia was flagged in 2022 by the Biden administration as a "suspect alien" who was possibly involved in "human smuggling/trafficking" after a traffic stop in Tennessee raised the suspicions of a state trooper, according to internal Homeland Security documents.

The Trump administration alleges Abrego Garcia is a member of the notorious El Salvadoran gang MS-13 based on Maryland police identifications and deported him last month back to his home country.

Family and lawyers deny any connection to the gang and are fighting the deportation, arguing it violates a 2019 order that protected Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador. Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence suggests the illegal immigrant wasn't the peaceful, law-abiding father "from Maryland," as his wife and lawyers have claimed in the news media.

When Abrego Garcia was stopped in 2022 by the Tennessee state trooper, Homeland Security intelligence created a record of the encounter, Just the News reported. The El Salvadoran was driving a black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban and said he was transporting his passengers to Maryland from Texas for construction work, although the state trooper found no luggage in the SUV.

Just one of those spur-of-the-moment Maryland-to-Texas group taxi rides.

Homeland Security documents identified the owner of the vehicle as Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes. Abrego Garcia told the state trooper that the owner was his boss. However, that SUV was flagged separately by the Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore field office as belonging to a target they suspected of human trafficking or smuggling, the documents show.

"Vehicle is used by HSI Baltimore target in human smuggling/trafficking operation. Vehicle makes trips to southern border to pick up non-citizens," the record reads. The memo says the Baltimore HSI case agent should be notified if the vehicle is encountered.

The car itself was on the DHS "watch list" for vehicles used in human smuggling.

It was just a misunderstanding, could've happened to anyone! Anyone!

I don't know whose crack this is. Someone must have put this crack in my crack-pipe, officer, because I've never seen this crack before.

Why do I have a crack-pipe? Funny story. I got sick of restaurants making you use those paper straws and so I thought, "Hey, a crack pipe is shaped like a straw." So that's why I have it. For drinking soders. Caffeine free soders.

But there's no crack in this crack pipe, except whatever crack someone else put in it.

I bet it was the same guy who smuggled Hunter Biden's cocaine into the White House. Maryland is near DC, you know.

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (263) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump to Order Investigation Into Criminal Democrat Buckraking Operation ActBlue

It's the Democrats' own Holy Land Foundation.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation:

Trump is expected to sign a memorandum on Thursday instructing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate ActBlue for potentially allowing foreign "straw donors" to pump cash into U.S. elections via the fundraising platform, according to a fact sheet outlining the memo obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Various media reports and congressional investigations have unearthed indications that ActBlue may have engaged in "potential criminal activity," according to House Republicans, and the organization has reportedly been in disarray in recent months.

"The Memorandum directs the Attorney General to investigate and take appropriate action concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make 'straw' or 'dummy' contributions and to make foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates and committees, all of which break the law," the fact sheet states. "Specifically, the Memorandum notes that a congressional investigation revealed significant fraud schemes using ActBlue and, over a 30-day period during the 2024 election cycle, hundreds of ActBlue donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards, despite it being illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to U.S. elections. It instructs the Attorney General to report the results of the investigation to the President, through the Counsel to the President."

The fact sheet further describes ActBlue as "notorious for its lax standards" and emphasizes that the forthcoming crackdown on the fundraising platform is intended to enforce election integrity and security in the U.S.

House Republicans published a report summarizing the findings of their investigations into ActBlue earlier in April. That report found that ActBlue made their standards less stringent on two occasions in 2024, and that the platform has detected in recent years at least 22 potential "fraud campaigns," nine of which had a "foreign nexus."

Specifically, congressional investigators found that ActBlue changed its policies in September 2024 to essentially flag only the most suspicious donations instead of all suspicious donations. Additionally, the organization moved in April 2024 to increase its threshold for triggering an automatic fraud review, thereby making its standards more lenient across the board.

"Internal documents produced to the Committees show that ActBlue policy changes have made it easier for bad actors to fraudulently donate to Democrat campaigns and causes," the House report states. "ActBlue weakened its fraud-prevention rules twice in 2024, even after internal assessments confirmed that these policy changes would lead to more fraudulent donations. While ActBlue boasts about its recent changes requiring (card security codes) and banning certain donations made using gift cards and prepaid cards, internal documents confirm that these rule changes were carefully calibrated to minimize the effects on ActBlue's donation volume and reputation."

Moreover, The New York Times reported in March that at least seven senior ActBlue employees left the organization in February for reasons that were not clear. The senior staff exodus raised concerns of unions representing ActBlue employees, with the groups writing to leadership to express concern that the departures "[eroded] our confidence in the stability of the organization."

Trump's first term was frustrating because his bark turned out to be much worse than his bite. He was really interested in working with the Democrats and uniting the country.

And he was hoping to unite the Republican Party, including the NeverTrumpers and globalist RINOs, and bring them on board.

Now, he no longer holds any illusions about that possibility. He intends to unite the country, by destroying the Democrat Party and the institutions it has corrupted into being organs of International Marxism, Inc.

Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Elon Musk Announces He'll Be "Scaling Back" His Work With DOGE as Democrat-Antifa Terrorism Crashes Tesla's Profits

Is that how we're doing it now?

lon Musk will significantly scale back his Trump administration work in May to focus on Tesla, the billionaire announced Tuesday as the electric vehicle maker reported a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profits.

"Probably in the next month, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly," Musk said at the outset of an earnings conference call, referring to his work for the "Department of Government Efficiency."

The comments came as Tesla reported profits of $409 million following a drop in auto sales that analysts said reflected brand damage due to Musk's work for President Donald Trump in slashing the US federal workforce.

Revenues fell nine percent to $19.3 billion.

The company retreated from its 2025 guidance, citing unpredictability over trade policy and demand.

"Uncertainty in the automotive and energy markets continues to increase as rapidly evolving trade policy adversely impacts the global supply chain and cost structure of Tesla and our peers," the company said.

"This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term."

Literally zero left wing media corporations have condemned these terrorist attacks, therefore, they endorse the use of terrorism against a corporation as an expression of political disagreement.

We're pretty angry, media. You may regret being such major players in the terror game.

Hello, everyone.

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (341) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

The feckless, weak, welfare-addicted EU loves to lecture America about our responsibilities, which according to them include the defense of the world, starting in their backyard. We must protect the world's sea lanes, defend against rogue actors, design and build cutting-edge weapons systems, maintain military bases in their countries, provide logistical support, etc. All while they build fancy trains, lovely highways, and provide cradle to grave welfare benefits for their citizens.

They still can't manage to create the standard of living that American Exceptionalism has built, but they sure do have a surfeit of arrogance and smug condescension about everything we do.

Just do the math... it is amazing how much money they have not spent on defense, yet they can't seem to provide a standard of living and, more important by far, the opportunities that America manages while spending more than 3% of GDP on defense! It's almost as if a long time ago, the best and brightest of Europe moved to America!

NATO's Underspending Problem: America's Allies Must Embrace Fair Burden Sharing

For more than a decade, many NATO countries have prioritized welfare expansion over defense procurement, a miscalculation that directly contributed to Europe's current security crisis. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea should have been a wake-up call; instead, it was met with half-measures and delayed commitments from key allies. Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine shattered any remaining illusions about European security. NATO's collective security is only as strong as each member's willingness to invest in it. The issue is not whether key Allied spending should rise; it must rise, not as a future aspiration, but as a correction for years of strategic neglect.

Suckling on the American teat while they enjoy 30 hour work weeks is great for them, but not so great for the American worker. We have subsidized them ever since World War II, and it is time to force the issue.

If Europe wants to push the Russian bear back to its own borders (wherever those may be), then by all means, build a robust armed force and do it! In fact, I think the United States should offer to sell them whatever arms they need to accomplish this feat. At retail.

What's the list price of an M1 Abrams or an F-16?

But the time of Pax Americana must end. We can not afford to shoulder the burdens of the defense of the world while Europe frolics. And what that means to Europe is the end of their welfare state, because they can't do both.

And it would take a heart of stone not to laugh!

PS. And Canada is among the worst! 1.27% over the last 10 years, and they have the temerity to complain about American tariffs?

[Hat Tip: MTF]

[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 (379) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Caterina Cornaro deposed from the throne of Cyprus
Francesco Hayez

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (230) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 24 /25

Good morning kids. Per the memorable lyrics of the Buffalo Springfield (close to 60 years on now!), "There's something happening here. What it is, isn't quite clear. . ." While virtually the entire Democrat/Media complex has placed its near-term political future on openly backing transnational violent criminals as well as terrorist-backing/colluding Islamic terrorists in the insane belief that it will help them destroy Donald Trump and the movement he sparked to return America to some semblance of societal and political sanity. That of course being antithetical to the Democrat/Left's 200-plus year plot to dismantle America as founded and seize absolute power for themselves. Despite this, there are a few surprising voices of if not sanity, then voices within that party that are staking out positions completely contra to their leaders if not base, that cannot be lumped in with the rest. Emphasis on the word LUMP in this instance:

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country's nuclear facilities with a military strike.

"Waste that s—t," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. "You're never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran's nuclear facilities."

Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of a regional war. "And remember, all of these so-called experts were all wrong," he said. "You know, they've been saying for years and years Hezbollah was the ultimate badass that kept Israel in check, and we can't move on anything beyond that."

As it turned out, Fetterman said, the Iranian proxy group "couldn't fight for s—t. And Hamas, literally, are just a bunch of tunnel rats with junkie rockets in the back of a Toyota truck. And now the Houthis have been effectively neutered as well. So what's left? You have Iran, and they have a nuclear facility, and it's clearly only for weapons."

Senator Fetterman is correct in his assertion that Iran cannot be negotiated with. The underlying reason either escapes him or else it is too politically toxic, and likely deleterious to one's continued physical health and existence to openly state. To wit: the goal of Islam is for global domination/subjugation via every means necessary and available. With Shiite controlled Iran, that calls for the initiation of armageddon to bring about the return of the 12th Imam from his slumber in the magic wishing well in Qom to usher in paradise on earth.

Now as to America using its armed forces to directly attack and go to war with Iran, as we discussed at length on the podcasts and here in many columns, that just is not a sane option. There are many ways in which to topple the Mullahs, that would not cause the already suffering people to rally around them but to help bring about their much deserved dangling from the lampposts in Tehran along with their goons in the Sharia Police and Revolutionary Guards.

Remove the Mullahs from power and much of the Islamic terrorism in the world would disappear virtually overnight. Not all of it, of course, because Islam itself would still remain and its adherents wherever they may be still have the same goal as the Iranian mullahs. You'd just have a different "King A-Rab" Master sitting on top of his "Blaster" telling him which way to go and whose head to take off.

Look what happened in India a few days ago. And what could potentially be brewing:

There are certainties life: death, taxes, and the ever-present risk of India and Pakistan going to war — and the latest spark could prove to be Tuesday's jihadi Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist attack that left at least 26 non-Muslims dead on the Indian side of the long-disputed Kashmir region. . .

. . . India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, explained that the IWT is suspended “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.” Defense Minister Rajnath Singh warned, "We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India."

In New Delhi's diplo-speak, "Sitting behind the scenes" means "plotting in Pakistan."

Pakistan has yet to announce what measures it will take in retaliation, but Islamabad said its defense and intelligence National Security Council will meet on Thursday. 

The longtime rivals have fought four wars since partition and independence from the UK in 1947, three of them major. The last time hostilities elevated to more than skirmishes was 1999's Kargil War, when Pakistani soldiers and militants infiltrated Indian positions around Kargil in Kashmir. Both sides had nukes by then, and a general war did not break out.

The tempo of crises that almost led to war has increased since both countries went nuclear. The two have nearly come to blows at least six times since the 1986-87 Brasstacks Crisis. Pakistan had not yet conducted a nuclear weapons test but was widely believed to have the ability to quickly assemble and deploy several nuclear warheads.

From "Beyond Thunderdome" we go to "War Games" and who wants to play global thermonuclear war?! India is generally in our corner as India is a rival of the Chi-Coms who are as a result allied with Pakistan. The current Sino/American tensions ratcheted up via President Trump's tariff regime adds a new wrinkle to current geopolitics:

Despite sharing a long border with Iran, Pakistan is 90% Sunni. Does that or did that prevent Pakistan from helping Iran develop it's nuke program? the Sunni/Shiite rift is arguably as deep or perhaps deeper than that of Islam and Judaism/Christianity. But enemy-of-my-enemy considerations can change with the times as they often do.

“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus has it ever been.” — The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, circa 1400, attributed to Luo Guanzhong.

At some point, Xi’s Chinese Communist Party will either 1) productively address America’s trade grievances, 2) start military action that risks global thermonuclear war, or 3) itself collapse and throw China into chaos. The first two possibilities have been discussed broadly elsewhere, but let’s think through scenario three because it seems this is our goal. . .

. . . Xi must certainly understand Trump’s challenge as an existential threat to his rule and the rule of a centralized government under the CCP. A major retrenchment from prior prosperity has always been considered a loss of the Mandate of Heaven and a sign for regime change, whatever the cause.
We should be confident that the Trump Administration understands the stakes here for Xi. Trump has backed Xi into a corner. Xi’s options are bad. He can acquiesce, which will lower Chinese living standards and reduce their international clout. Or he can fight and even escalate, which will lower Chinese living standards and reduce their international clout. Either way, Xi loses face and his power weakens. He may yet retain central control, or he might be replaced with a more consensual and less aggressive CCP leader. Or China as we know it could break into warlordism. . . What emerges after the breakup of the CCP will, without doubt, return to vigorous competition amongst the regional states. That competition could well turn violent, as so often has happened in the past. And somebody is going to inherit the nuclear weapons. . . We must hope the US has some plan for dealing with a new Period of the Warring States.

Well, hope over experience is no way to live one's life, as we now see in terms of the entire Ukraine debacle/fiasco that our globalist asshole wizards of smart helped bring about since the breakup of the Soviet Union that they were completely unprepared for and handled with insanely gross incompetence regardless of who and which administration was in power at the time.

China is also out to capture the world as it has and continues to make moves all over the world. They both need us and want to dispose of us at the same time. Trump's goal to kneecap the chi-coms is right. We can debate strategies and tactics as is our wont to do. . .

As for Islam, well the Muslims don't need nukes. They just need mass migration to every non-Muslim nation on the planet and have the babies that Low-T soy boys and green-haired lesbians and trannies refuse to or cannot and in no time flat, Al-Shabab's Your Uncle! Notre Dame, Westminster Abbey and St. John the Divine are transformed into clones of the Hagia Sophia while Mohammed becomes the most popular baby name for the next 100 years.

At first I was reluctant to believe that there are quite so many British Muslims in positions of power as some people maintain. Then something like the following happens, and it seems a hell of a lot easier to believe.

What happened is this: Renaud Camus, the 78-year-old French philosopher, author, and intellectual, was banned from entering the UK. Who, you may ask, is Renaud Camus? Well, back when the world was young, Camus was what the French call a ’68-er – a radical on the barricades, the Gallic equivalent of an American hippie, a bookish lad playing at revolution. He was also a leading figure in France’s gay-rights movement. His 1979 novel Tricks, a chronicle of intimate same-sex liaisons, was a bestseller and a critical sensation. The critic Roland Barthes gave it his imprimatur. Gore Vidal praised it in the New York Review of Books.

But no, Camus isn’t being kept out of Britain because of any of that. Tricks, and the civil unrest of May 1968, are, after all, long ago and far away. Nor is Camus (no relation, by the way, to Albert Camus, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Stranger and The Plague) being punished for having been an active member of the Socialist Party in the 1970s and 80s. How many French intellectuals, after all, weren’t socialists in the 1970s and 80s? Nor is Camus – a man of wide and deep learning – being banned for having accumulated more diplomas than you can fit on a single wall, including degrees in French literature, philosophy, political science, and the history of law.

No, Camus’ offense is having published the 2011 book Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), which warned that Europe was undergoing, as the title put it, a great replacement – a massive influx of non-Western immigrants who, owing to early marriages and high reproductive rates, were gradually taking the place of native Europeans who were marrying late, if at all, and, in most cases, having no more than one or two children. . . When Goodwin interviewed Camus – who was in France, of course – the latter denied his detractors’ charge that he’s pushing a “conspiracy theory”; no, he contended, the Islamization of Europe is “plain fact.” Goodwin said that according to critics, Camus’s analysis of the European situation has been “debunked”; how, replied Camus, can it have been debunked “when it is evident in every street”? Camus accused his critics of “denialism” – denialism about “the most important thing” ever to have happened to Europe.

Psaki-Psircling back to the US of A, we have open borders that are not only letting in a flood of latin American peasants, along with drug traffickers, human traffickers, murderers, rapists and criminal gangs that the Democrats are falling all over themselves to defend but Islamic terrorist cheerleaders and terrorists themselves. But deporting them is a stain on our sacred democracy or something.

Keep on pushing that line, Democrats and even more Latinos, Asians, Blacks, youth and women will abandon you. Perhaps John Fetterman might be indicative of something and not merely an outlier. Yes, for sure, The aforementioned are not going to embrace Trump openly, but no one is flocking to Titty-Caca Cortez and jet-setting commie alta-cockers like Bernie Sanders either.

Elsewhere, Pete Hegseth must be doing something right or else the Deep State youldn't be so desperate to destroy him. Yes, he's a good stand-in for President Trump, but a revitalized military is antithetical to both the globalist goal to take us down a notch on the global stage but to erode a key pillar of our culture and society.

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
• Assuming Trump’s success in cornering China on trade, will there be an implosion or an explosion?
  Are we prepared for a new Chinese period of the warring states?
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: The left decries Trump’s deportation of an MS-13-linked illegal alien while ignoring its own legal hypocrisy and attempts to undermine the U.S. justice system.
  What Is Democrat Legality?
  
• Dangerous policies, incoherent ideas, and amoral politics.
  A Field Guide to the American Left

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:38 AM | Comments (365) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 24 April 2025

Top Story

• TSMC's N3P process is now in full production and N3X is set to follow later this year. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  N3P is a slight shrink of N3E which in turn is a small update to N3. We're only talking about 5% improvements each time, but if you design a chip for N3E you can produced in on N3P and get free performance and power improvements.
  
  
  
• A little further out, TSMC plans to introduce 14A - 1.4nm - production in 2028 and add backside power delivery in 2029. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Many people would benefit from a little backside power delivery.
  
  
  
• Russia is on track to introduce 28nm chips by 2030. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  28nm is actually a very reliable node and a good choice if you're not trying to win Apple as a customer. Embedded chips are commonly still produced at 40nm.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (127) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - April 23, 2025 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the Wednesday night ONT.

[Top photo: 14th century bell tower from Curon, an Italian village that was flooded in 1950 to create Lake Resia in Italy]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (448) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Blessed Wednesday Cafe

The Infiltrator

Speaking of blessings: I really wanted to take a break after the election, but then I thought that I, much like my hero Rachel Maddow, should be on call for the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, Redux.

April 30, Wednesday, is Trump's 100th day. Close enough!

The kind-hearted cobloggers have agreed to take over the blog next week, Monday through Friday.

So I'll be taking the week off, and leaving you in their strong yet tender hands.

Dog invades feline spaces. Good!

Taking a dog to get his picture taken.

A week ago I linked videos of very realistic latex masks that look straight out of Mission: Impossible. Some commenters wondered if the masks were real or just CGI trickery like you see in the actual Mission: Impossible movies. Not only are they real, but they have already been used in bank robberies -- a young man wore a realistic mask of a decrepit old man, nearly as decrepit at Joe Biden, and has evaded capture to this day. Apparently people realized he was wearing a mask when they saw this ancient Bidenesque figure running away from a robbery at full tilt like a college athlete.

They're expensive -- like $2000 or $3000 -- but that's very cheap if you want to do major crimes or other deceptions.

Little brother photobombs her attempt to become Internet Famous and steals the spotlight. (It's old.)

Boxer raises his human baby brother.

The inner workings of an escalator are just as scary as I thought they were when I was 8. (I broke my foot when I was eight and had to get along with crutches and a foot in a boot-cast. I was very scared that I wouldn't be able to step on to an escalator properly -- I thought I'd slip and it would drag me under or something -- which is this faint anxiety I've had ever since.)

A tornado hits Texas as construction workers grip the roof of the building they're working on to keep from being blown away.

Rambunctious cat wants chill dog to play.

This cat has hypnotized me with his crazyeyes.

Boxer enjoys the movie.

Posted by: Ace at 07:26 PM | Comments (243) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Zelenskyy declared that he would never agree to a peace deal if it involves Russia continuing to control the territory it already controls.

Well, Flake, you've had three years to dislodge them and you've failed. Do you mean you want American troops to come in and drive the Russians out?

Actually, that's incorrect. Russia did seize Ukraine territory three years ago, but the Crimea was seized 11 years ago.

Zelenskyy doesn't just want to reclaim the recently seized territory, but the territory Ukraine gave up without a shot being fired 11 years ago.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after he rejected a US proposal that would recognize Russian control of Crimea as part of a peace deal.

This comes as Washington continues its efforts to hammer out a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv. During a press conference, Zelensky said, "Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea" and that "There's nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution."

...

Zelensky said Russia should agree to a cease-fire before further talks to demonstrate "serious steps, and not childishness." He said that Ukrainian officials meeting with U.S. and European officials in London would have a mandate to discuss a partial or full cease-fire, which Ukraine agreed to last month but Moscow rejected.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump went on a long tirade against Zelensky, arguing that Zelensky's perspective "is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion."

Trump continued, "Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?"

The president said, "It's inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy's that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire -- He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country."

The FBI arrested a UMass Boston "student" for firebombing a Kansas City Tesla dealership.

A 19-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston student was busted for the crazed firebombing of a Tesla dealership in Missouri, according to federal officials.

Owen McIntire, 19, was back in his hometown of Parkville, Mo., for spring break on March 17, when he drove to a Tesla dealership in nearby Kansas City and hurled two Molotov cocktails at a Cybertruck, causing a fire and thousands of dollars in damage after the blaze spread to a second Cybertruck, the Justice Department said Friday.

In the alleged arson attack, McIntire allegedly concocted two homemade incendiary devices and used them to destroy the pair of Cybertrucks, which cost $105,485 and $107,495, the Justice Department alleged.

Only one of those bottle bombs exploded, and investigators were able to recover the second completely intact, the statement said. It appeared to be an apple cider vinegar bottle, according to photos from the scene.

Two Tesla charging stations, which cost $550 each, were also damaged in the blaze, feds said.

He (?) looks as we've come to expect zems to look:

Video report here.

Legal Insurrection: Trump should dust off the False Claims Act to bring rogue racially-discriminatory colleges in line with the law and Constitution.

The False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. § 3730; the "FCA") was passed over 150 years ago to address a seemingly intractable problem: widespread fraud by defense contractors during the Civil War. Under the FCA, a person who knowingly submits a false claim to the government is liable for three times the government's damages plus additional penalties. For example, a hospital that knowingly obtains $10 million from the federal government on bogus Medicare invoices would be liable to the government for over $30 million.

But while the government can bring such claims itself, the FCA has another important component: the ability for whistleblowers (i.e., people with inside information of the fraud) to bring FCA suits in the government's name, and receive a reward of up to 30% the funds recovered. Such private prosecutions are known as qui tam actions, and the vast majority of the billions recovered annually under the FCA arise from them.

For example, suppose you are an employee of the hospital in the foregoing hypothetical, and you discover that it is fraudulently billing Medicare for MRI's that never occurred. You find a lawyer who specializes in FCA qui tam cases, who then prepares and files the qui tam action in federal court under seal, and serves the Department of Justice a copy of the complaint and a comprehensive memorandum explaining the claim and the evidence that the whistleblower has. The Department of Justice can then choose to intervene in the case and thereafter prosecute it, or it can decline to do so and allow you to do so. Either way, if the FCA qui tam suit is successful, the whistleblower receives a reward of up to 30% of the funds recovered (typically, 15-20% where the government takes over the case).

So in the hypothetical set forth above, if the government immediately intervened and ultimately collected $30 million, the whistleblowing employee would collect a reward of $4.5 to $6 million (which typically would be split with his attorney, if the attorney handled the case on a contingency fee basis). These financial inducements -- along with provisions in the FCA (31 U.S.C. § 3730(h)) imposing draconian additional penalties on employers who retaliate against FCA whistleblowers -- make the FCA a powerful weapon against defrauding the federal government.

Nice. It's like letters of Marque for whistleblowers.

From last week: the government's Covid.gov website now links to a refutation of the fraudulent "Proximal Origins" paper that Fauci paid his sycophants to type up using taxpayer-funded "science" grants as the payoff.

It's a glorious thing.

Here's a screenshot.

Posted by: Ace at 06:26 PM | Comments (286) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Polls Have More Bad News for the Party of Failure and Fear

This Yale Poll is. Stunning. And Brave.

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh

YALE POLL...

Women, aged 18-21 (middle Gen Z): 🔴 R+4

This is monumental.

This is madness for the Democrats.

Not white women. American women at-large, 18-21. All races, religions (or lack thereof), etc.

I think it might get worse.

BTW - this group was basically destroyed by the Democrats during COVID in school. Might have something to do with it.

Young voters have little confidence in congressional Democrats, a Harvard poll says.

Only 31% of young voters approve of Trump and a similarly low percentage approve of Republicans, but that's always the case. The big news is the "nosedive" in approval for Democrats.

Fewer than one in three young Americans approve of the job President Donald Trump and Congress are doing, according to a new national poll from the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics.

But while the approval ratings for Trump and congressional Republicans have mostly stayed consistent since the start of the president's first administration eight years ago, the 50th Harvard Youth Poll indicates that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 have nosedived.

According to Harvard's annual spring survey, which was conducted March 14-25 and released on Wednesday, the approval rating for congressional Democrats stands at 23%, down from 42% in the spring of 2017 at the start of Trump's first term.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for a press conference at the Capitol on Feb. 12, 2025. A new poll suggests congressional Democrats' approval ratings have plunged. (AP/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

"In that same period, approval of Congressional Republicans has held steady, inching up slightly from 28% to 29%," the poll's release notes.

And the approval rating for Trump, who next week marks 100 days into his second tour of duty in the White House, stands at 31% in the new survey.

The release highlights that Trump's numbers are "virtually unchanged from the 32% reported in Spring 2017 and the 29% recorded in Fall 2020."

Harvard's survey is the latest to indicate troubling numbers for the Democrats.

The confidence rating for Democrat leadership in Congress stood at a record-low 25% in a Gallup poll conducted April 1-14 and released last week. That's nine points below the previous low of 34%, which was recorded in 2023.

Fueling the drop in confidence in the Democrat congressional leadership was a 41-point plunge among Democrats questioned in the Gallup survey.

National polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University, and last month by CNN and by NBC News, indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows.

A Democrat strategist has more bad news for his fellow Democrats.

Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik didn't sugarcoat the situation during a conversation with Mark Halperin on 2WAY....

First, Sosnik pointed to the seismic shift in party affiliation. "The electorate in 2024 was 6% less Democratic than compared to four years ago," Halperin noted, asking if that level of movement was historically significant. Sosnik didn't mince words: "The shift is significant, but more importantly... I can't remember the last time that people who voted on Election Day -- the majority, uh, plurality of them -- were Democrats." He continued, "It shows a real erosion for the Democratic Party," noting that many of the Democrats who backed Biden in 2020 simply didn't show up this time around.

I don't want to spread any Russian Conspiracy Theories, but is it possible that many of the "Democrats who showed up for Biden in 2020" didn't show up this time for the simple reason that they never existed? And that these fake votes were counted in 2020 only because states removed all voter integrity safeguards in the biggest, most criminal political op in American history?

I denounce myself for asking very obvious questions (which suggest very obvious answers).

That drop-off was made even more glaring when coupled with the latest favorability ratings. "Lowest net favorable rating since the '90s," Halperin remarked, prompting Sosnik to outline a trifecta of disasters driving the collapse in support: inflation, immigration, and cultural arrogance.

On the economic front, Sosnik admitted, "We had the worst inflation in America since the early 1980s." He added that by the time Election Day arrived, "everything... was on average 20% higher than when Biden took office." That kind of economic pain, Sosnik argued, doesn't just dent a party; it shatters its credibility.

...

Then came the cultural disconnect, the sense that Democrats had abandoned everyday Americans in favor of elite ideologies. "A lot of people in America in the middle of the country thought Democrats were looking down on them," Sosnik said bluntly. He attributed part of that disconnect to "how they talked, issues they cared about, all the DEI programs." The result? A broadening sense among voters that Democrats "weren't competent to govern."

See the article for his thoughts about Democrats' embrace of the lawlessness of an open border. American voters realized that the Democrats cared nothing for their safety and prosperity, only for foreign non-voters. (Supposedly they're non-voters, anyway.)

The Democrats' absolute commitment to championing an MS-13 wife-beater does nothing to disturb that impression.

Posted by: Ace at 05:27 PM | Comments (294) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Supreme Court Appears Ready to Rule that the Montgomery County School System Violated Religious Rights by Making Gay Propaganda Books Available for Children In Their Libraries, and Bizarrely, Refusing a Simple Opt-Out for Children of Concerned Parents

The opt-out would just consist of a librarian checking to see if the student is approved by parental consent to check out the book.

Also, when teachers would bring these gay storybooks into the classrooms and indoctrinate children into Gay Studies, parents wanted an opt-out for those classes as well.

But the school board refused.

But you may have noticed -- librarians are now almost all extremist radical lesbians who are determined to allow children to watch porn on library computers and fill their libraries with actual gay porn how-to books.

And teachers are 80% hard left as well.

Even Elena Kagan could not understand why the school system would allow opt-outs for lots of different sensitive topics, but is choosing to dig its heels in for full-on gay sexual grooming of children.

Wait a tick, I think I just figured it out.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to rule for parents in Maryland who objected on religious grounds to books made available in a school district's elementary schools that feature stories about gay and transgender characters.

Members of the 6-3 conservative majority, which often backs religious rights, seemed sympathetic during the lively 2½-hour oral argument toward the parents' claims that the Montgomery County Board of Education violated their religious rights by failing to provide an opt-out for their children.

Some justices indicated that the board's refusal to provide an opt-out might have been motivated by hostility toward religion. A ruling is due by the end of June.

At issue are books included in the English language arts curriculum in Montgomery County. The dispute arose in 2022 after the school board in the large and diverse jurisdiction just outside Washington decided it wanted more storybooks reflecting LGBTQ stories to better reflect the people who live there.

...

One book, "Uncle Bobby's Wedding," features a gay character who is getting married. Another, called "Born Ready," is about a transgender child who wants to identify as a boy.

Some parents, including Muslims and Orthodox Christians, objected on religious grounds under the Constitution's First Amendment, saying their children should be able to opt out of any exposure to the content.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch was one of several justices who raised comments made by a former member of the school board, Lynne Harris.

She had suggested in a media interview cited in court papers that a student who objected to the books was "parroting dogma" passed on by her parents and compared their complaints to those of white supremacists who opposed civil rights laws.

"Does that suggest a hostility toward religion?" Gorsuch asked, citing a 2018 ruling in which the court ruled for a Christian baker who refused to serve a gay couple on the grounds that a state civil rights commission had shown anti-religious animus.

Other conservative justices expressed disbelief that the school board found it too difficult to provide an opt-out.

"Why isn't that feasible?" Justice Samuel Alito asked.

"I'm not understanding why it's not feasible," Justice Brett Kavanaugh added.

Chief Justice John Roberts seemed skeptical of the school board's argument that the policy did not require the children to affirm or support the content of the books.

"Is that a realistic concept when you are talking about a 5-year-old?" he asked.

The DEI Justice -- I'm sorry, that's not specific enough; one of the three DEI Justices (does Amy Coney Barrett also count?) -- Ketanji Brown Jackson declared that any parent who doesn't want their kids flooded with gay porn can just put their kids in a private school.

Note that the government forcibly extracts tax money from parents to pay for school, and refuses to give them vouchers to send their kids to private school. So she's saying the state can violate your religious rights and make the schools you are forced at gunpoint to pay for completely unusable by you, but that's okay, because you can just take the double-penalty of paying for a school you don't use and spending $25,000 per year on a private school, Bigots.

Fellow liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also appeared skeptical, noting that parents have other options if they do not like what their children are taught in school.

"If the school teaches something that the parent disagrees with, you have a choice. You don't have to send your kid to that school," she said.

...

The lead plaintiffs are Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat -- a Muslim couple who have a son in elementary school. Other plaintiffs are members of the Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches.

They are not challenging the curriculum itself, just the lack of an opt-out.

A federal judge and the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled in favor of the school board.

...

The parents, represented by the religious liberties group Becket, say that under Supreme Court precedent, they have a right to opt out of any instruction that would interfere with their children's religious development.

The school board is "compelling instruction designed to indoctrinate petitioners' children against their religious beliefs," the parents' lawyers wrote.

The parents have the backing of the Trump administration.

Gorsuch wanted to know about a book made available to three-year-old pre-schoolers. There were drawings of a drag queen dressed in leather, and kids were instructed to Find the Leather-Daddy Drag-Queen in the books as if he was Waldo.

The lawyer for the school board insisted that this wasn't sexual and the all-leather get-up wasn't bondage gear.

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Linda McMahon Orders the Department of Education to Begin Collecting Payments for Overdue Student Loans, Garnishing Paychecks If That's What It Takes

Oh no, anything but this.

President Trump's education boss Linda McMahon has defended the administration's decision to resume student loan debt collections -- insisting that greedy colleges have "profited massively" from Biden-era forgiveness measures.

The Department of Education announced Monday it would start recouping federal student repayments again from May 5 from the roughly 5.3 million borrowers who are currently in default on their loans.

Mb
"Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red," McMahon wrote.

"A widely cited 2015 study found that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents," she continued.

"Many of the degree-granting programs that qualify for student loans are worthless on the job market, but colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them.

"Accountability is a two-way street. As we push to hold student borrowers to account, we will also push colleges to be responsible and transparent."

McMahon insisted the administration wasn't enforcing the collections to be "unkind" -- as she blasted former President Joe Biden for dangling "the carrot of loan forgiveness in front of young voters" during his successful 2020 election campaign.

...

"On May 5, we will begin the process of moving roughly 1.8 million borrowers into repayment plans and restart collections of loans in default. Borrowers who don't make payments on time will see their credit scores go down, and in some cases, their wages automatically garnished.

"Why? Not because we want to be unkind to student borrowers. Borrowing money and failing to pay it back isn't a victimless offense. Debt doesn't go away; it gets transferred to others. If borrowers don't pay their debts to the government, taxpayers do," McMahon added.

I do feel bad for people who were swindled by the bill of goods that the Regime sold them.

But there's no way in hell we're paying trillions so that indifferent students, who really should just have begun working out of high school, can pursue meaningless degrees in fantasy fields.

Below, a lot of parasites are outraged and baffled at the concept that they might actually be forced to repay loans they took out. The first very gay gentlemen seems to believe it's somehow a contradiction for Trump to shut down the Department of Education, while also demanding that people who took out DoEd-guaranteed loans should have to pay them back.

This is just more proof that we are sending people to college who plainly will not benefit from college. And college has been dumbed-down in order to accommodate these Scholars.

Posted by: Ace at 03:23 PM | Comments (381) | Trackbacks (Suck)

60 Minutes Producer Responsible for the Kamala Harris Propaganda Edit Resigns

CBS wanted some oversight over his partisan propaganda decisions, and he demanded a free "independent" hand to propagandize for the Democrat/globalist party as he saw fit.

And CBS wanted to exercise oversight because it desperately needs to be bought out, and they have to clear the decks of all the legal liabilities they have looming over them.

Top Producer of '60 Minutes' Quits, Saying He Lost Independence

The news program has faced mounting pressure from both President Trump and its corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.

CBS News entered a new period of turmoil on Tuesday after the executive producer of "60 Minutes," Bill Owens, said that he would resign from the long-running Sunday news program because he had lost his journalistic independence.

In an extraordinary declaration, Mr. Owens -- only the third person to run the program in its 57-year history -- told his staff in a memo that "over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for '60 Minutes,' right for the audience."

"So, having defended this show -- and what we stand for -- from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward," he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.

"60 Minutes" has faced mounting pressure in recent months from both President Trump, who sued CBS for $10 billion and has accused the program of "unlawful and illegal behavior," and its own corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.

Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is eager to secure the Trump administration's approval for a multibillion-dollar sale of her company to Skydance, a company run by the son of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison. She has expressed a desire to settle Mr. Trump's case, which stems from what the president has called a deceptively edited interview in October with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on "60 Minutes."

Legal experts have dismissed that suit as baseless and far-fetched, and Mr. Owens said in February that he would not apologize as part of any prospective settlement.

Many journalists at CBS News -- the former home of Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace -- believe that a settlement would amount to a capitulation to Mr. Trump over what they consider standard-issue gripes about editorial judgment.

In his memo on Tuesday, Mr. Owens pledged that "'60 Minutes' will continue to cover the new administration, as we will report on future administrations." He added: "The show is too important to the country. It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer."

Perpetually moralizing woke scold Jake Tapper rushed to offer more sanctimonious preening.

"And it seems as if Shari Redstone is likely to bend the knee to Trump and settle this allegedly frivolous lawsuit," Tapper said, noting Paramount is currently trying to push through a merger with fellow Hollywood giant Skydance, which will need approval from Trump's government regulators to go through.

"And that is the context of Shari Redstone's likely bending of the knee. Hope the money's worth it, Shari," Tapper quipped in comments first highlighted by Mediaite.

He's such a dismal faggot. I can't wait until he's fired.

CBS did some more lawsuit-clearing work. A writer, you may remember, was rejected for a full-time staff position on the CBS show SEAL Team, even though he was considered a good writer who had written well-received scripts for the show as a freelancer. He was rejected because, get this, he was white, and the show decided to hire and promote less-qualified DEI "writers" with little or no writing experience.

CBS has now settled that lawsuit for an undisclosed sum-- and has agreed to end its illegal racial discrimination practices.

America First Legal has achieved another significant milestone in its fight to dismantle unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies across corporate America. Paramount Global has reversed course and terminated its DEI initiatives following AFL's lawsuits challenging discriminatory employment practices at Paramount and its subsidiary, CBS.

Following Paramount's change to DEI policies, AFL has also secured the amicable resolution of a discrimination claim against Paramount and CBS on behalf of its client, former "SEAL Team" script coordinator and writer Brian Beneker. AFL filed the lawsuit against Paramount Global, CBS Entertainment, and CBS Studios on February 29, 2024, alleging that the companies engaged in unlawful discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by denying Mr. Beneker employment and career opportunities based on his race, sex, and sexual orientation.

Mr. Beneker alleged that Paramount and CBS had imposed racial quotas in their writers' rooms. In 2020, George Cheeks, then-President and CEO of CBS and now co-CEO of CBS and Paramount Global, publicly stated that he "set a goal that all writers' rooms on the network's primetime series be staffed 40 percent BIPOC in the 2021-22 season; 17 out of 21 shows hit or exceeded that target." CBS also set a target that "half of all writers will be nonwhite" by "the 2022-2023 broadcast season."

Paramount has now reversed course on these targets. Specifically, it has:

Stopped setting numerical goals related to race, ethnicity, sex, or gender.
Stopped collecting data on the race, ethnicity, sex, or gender of applicants.
Removed a five percent funding bonus for programs advancing DEI goals.

As alleged in Mr. Beneker's complaint, he began as a script coordinator for SEAL Team during its first season in 2017. Mr. Beneker wrote a freelance script for its second season and continued to write freelance scripts with co-writers for four episodes across four separate seasons of the show. Despite this substantial writing experience, he was repeatedly denied promotions to a full-time SEAL Team staff writer. During his time as script coordinator across six seasons of SEAL Team, at least six minority writers -- black, female, or gay -- were hired, many of whom had no writing credits and limited experience. Mr. Beneker asked the showrunner, who generally has the authority to hire writers, why he wasn't hired for open writing positions, and the showrunner stated that he did not "check any diversity boxes." Through his lawsuit, Mr. Beneker sought to draw attention to the invidious DEI hiring practices he and many other white, male, heterosexual writers have encountered over the past several years.

Now that Paramount and CBS have publicly announced the termination of DEI policies, Mr. Beneker has agreed to voluntarily dismiss his claims following an amicable resolution with the companies.

Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (246) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ancient Evil Reptiloid Dick Durbin, Get This, Won't Seek Reelection in 2026, Ending a Thirty-Plus Year Reign of Graft and Demoralization

Dear Lord, what could we sinners have done to be deserving of such blessings today?

Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the second most powerful Senate Democrat, announced Wednesday his decision not to run for another term after nearly three decades in the world's greatest deliberative body.

Durbin, 80, is ending his Senate career after five terms, the longest tenure of any Senator in Illinois history. His retirement opens up a deep blue seat in 2026 and will create a leadership competition for Senate Democrats amid frustration with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and generational turnover within the party.

...

Durbin becomes the latest Senate Democrat to opt out of running for another term, joining the ranks of Senators Gary Peters (Mich.), Tina Smith (Minn.), and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.). Peters's seat is expected to be one of the most competitive in the 2026 cycle, while Smith, Shaheen, and Durbin's vacancies are likely to remain in Democratic hands.

The Democratic primary to fill Durbin's seat is expected to be hyper-competitive because Illinois is a safely blue state. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won Illinois with 54.8 percent of the vote over President Donald Trump's 43.8 percent this past November.

Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (348) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Real-Life Dr. Evil, Bug Cuisine Promoter Klaus Schwab, Resigns From His Cushy Perch As Head of the World Economic Forum As He's Accused of Embezzlement

The real, ugly face of SPECTRE

The wins just keep piling up.

This is an unexpected gift. Enjoy it. Be grateful for this blessing.

The World Economic Forum announced on Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into its founder, Klaus Schwab, following a whistleblower letter alleging misconduct by the former chairman.

The announcement came a day after the 87-year-old Schwab said he was resigning as chairman, effective immediately, without stating a reason.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the probe, said an anonymous letter sent last week to the WEF's board raised concerns about its governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the forum's resources without proper oversight.

I can't believe that the class of well-credentialed globalist mediocrities would use their unearned sinecures to feather their own nests.

A spokesman for the Schwab family denied all the allegations in the whistleblower complaint, the Wall Street Journal reported. The spokesman also told the Journal that Klaus Schwab intends to file a lawsuit against whoever is behind the anonymous letter and "anybody who spreads these mistruths."

...

The Journal previously reported that the WEF's board was working with a law firm to investigate the forum's workplace culture, after the newspaper reported allegations of harassment and discrimination at the forum.

This Reuters story seems to underplay the actual allegations. Go figure.

Here's the WSJ article it's soft-pedaling.

World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab is under investigation by the organization he created after a new whistleblower letter alleged financial and ethical misconduct by the longtime leader and his wife.

The anonymous letter was sent last week to the Forum's board and raised concerns about the Forum's governance and workplace culture, including allegations that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with the Forum's resources without proper oversight, according to the letter and people familiar with the matter.

It included allegations that Klaus Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and used Forum funds to pay for private, in-room massages at hotels.

Was that wrong? Because at my old job, we used to do that all the time and it was no problem.

It also alleged that his wife Hilde, a former Forum employee, scheduled "token" Forum-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization's expense.

I gotta plead ignorance on this. If anyone had told me I wasn't allowed to book fake "conferences" to justify taking luxury holidays to Hawaii...

Klaus Schwab in recent days argued against an investigation, telling board members that he denied the unsubstantiated allegations and that he would challenge them in a lawsuit, the people said.

Fuck you. Eat the bugs in prison.

The board of trustees decided to open a probe during an emergency meeting on Easter Sunday. Schwab opted to resign immediately as the chairman, instead of staying on for an extended transition period as previously planned.

The Schwabs said through a spokesman that they deny every allegation in the whistleblower complaint. To protect their reputation, Klaus Schwab intends to file a lawsuit against whoever is behind the anonymous letter and "anybody who spreads these mistruths," the spokesman said.

Whenever Schwab charged massages at a hotel to the Forum while on travel, he'd always pay the Forum back, the spokesman said.

Fani Willis just emailed me to say. "It happens. I swear. Mah daddy told me to hide money in old soupcans."

Schwab and his wife denied the allegations about luxury travel and withdrawing money.

Sure.

But you know, you don't have the full Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Irma Bunt supervillain set-up without a bevy of beautiful dominated women.

...

The letter also raises concerns about how Klaus Schwab treated female employees and how his leadership over decades allegedly allowed instances of sexual harassment and other discriminatory behavior to go unchecked in the workplace, allegations that were raised in a Wall Street Journal article and previously investigated by the Forum. The Forum disputed the Journal's reporting at the time, and Schwab denied the allegations against him.

...

A few weeks ago, Schwab, 87, said he'd step down as nonexecutive chairman of the Forum's board, and the Forum said the succession process would be completed by January 2027. The whistleblower letter blew up that timeline.

Behind the scenes, a high-stakes boardroom drama unfolded pitting Schwab against the global powerplayers on the Forum's board. The board includes celebrities like cellist Yo-Yo Ma and politicians like Al Gore.

...

One allegation raised in the letter is the Schwab family's use of Villa Mundi, a luxury property purchased before the pandemic by the Forum, next to the organization's headquarters in Geneva.

Ah yes, the mountaintop ski mansion lair.

Villa Mundi is a sprawling Modernist house built in the 1950s overlooking Lake Geneva. It was renovated over several years and opened as a meeting and conference center in 2023.

The whistleblower letter maintains that Hilde Schwab maintains tight control over use of the building and that portions of the property are understood to be reserved for private family access; the Schwabs deny the claim. The letter says the Forum paid about $30 million to purchase the property and another roughly $20 million to renovate it.

They poured money into renovating this mansion and then used it for their private enjoyment.

Hilde Schwab says she did it all for The Earth.

In a statement, Hilde Schwab said, "The building is a role model for sustainable architecture, which is dear to my heart, and I was glad to show it to people who expressed interest."

What a way to begin a Wednesday. How are you all?

Update: Peer into the monstrous eyes of Schwab's darksoul successor.

If you dare.

Posted by: Ace at 12:15 PM | Comments (403) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Morning Rant

Having It Both Ways

One of the fascinating aspects of the new tariff environment is the handling of some of its immediate repercussions. Ace had an excellent post about this yesterday, and one aspect of that article is fate of the company Shein. So is this one, after a fashion.

Shein is a - perhaps the - "fast fashion" business that has thrived (and indeed depends) on the "de minimis" import exemption. Shein may not collapse because of the removal of that exemption (it has markets that are not the United States), but it may well be done here. It will be a similar story with other "fast fashion" and other small-ticket, high-volume, customer-direct China-based online retailers like Temu, wish.com and Ali Express.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (275) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

City on the seashore
Volodymyr Orlovsky

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)