Oh My: March's Inflation Comes In at Negative 0.1%

Unbelievable. There is usually no way to actually reverse inflation. Once the dollar is inflated, you can't deflate it. All you can do is cut the rate of inflation to something acceptable, like 1% or lower. Prices will go up less slowly... but they will not actually fall.

Usually. Almost always.

But the last month, prices actually fell 0.1%. This brings the yearly inflation rate down to 2.4%.

Note that the Fed's target for an "acceptable" rate of inflation is around 2%.

So Trump is on the threshold of officially beating inflation. (Though I wouldn't mind a little more deflation...)

U.S. consumer prices fall for first time in almost three years

U.S. consumer prices dipped in March, defying predictions that Trump's proposed tariffs would trigger higher inflation. The decline in the Consumer Price Index marks the first monthly drop in nearly three years--and only the second since inflation spiked under former President Biden.

Key Details:

March's 0.1% decline in overall prices came as a surprise to economists, who had expected a 0.1% increase. Core prices--excluding food and energy--rose by just 0.1%, well below the 0.3% that had been forecast.

Ooooh, economists being surprised by every single thing that happens is TIGHT!

The price of energy dropped 2.4% for the month, led by a sharp 6.3% decline in gasoline. Other falling categories included airfares, used vehicles, motor vehicle insurance, and smartphones.

After nearly three years of steady increases, March's report shows that prices aren't just rising more slowly--they're actually falling, marking a reversal in the inflation trend since Trump took office.

Diving Deeper:

Consumer prices fell in March, delivering a political and economic win for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly promised to reverse the surge in inflation seen under Biden. The Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1% from February, the first month-over-month decline since mid-2021. The dip defied most economists' expectations and marked a significant shift from the persistent inflation Americans endured under Biden.

"Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again," Trump had vowed on the campaign trail. March's report gives weight to that promise, as the numbers suggest prices not only stabilized--but in some cases fell.

No one wants actual sustained deflation (a sustained drop in prices over months as the value of the dollar increases).

If the value of the dollar starts going up, then simply hoarding dollars becomes a viable investment strategy. Just hang on to your dollars -- they're appreciating in value.

This has the bad effect of making investment and risking money in business less desirable. Because what you hope to make from your investment now has to compete with the profit you can make from not spending or investing anything, as your dollars go up in value.

But I doubt very much that we're in a deflationary stage. And a 0.1% increase in the value of the dollar for one month is no big deal. It happens from time to time -- just not in a sustained way.

Still -- what an enormous change from Biden! Trump didn't just cut the rate of inflation in half, he didn't just bring it all the way down to zero... he actually reduced prices by 0.1%.

And how did he do it? Apparently just by stopping the runaway spending under Biden, which all of us have been screaming caused the massive inflation in the first place, as Biden flooded the market with debased dollars he just printed up.

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)

House Passes Trump's Preferred Budget Bill as RINO Senators Balk at Serious Spending Cuts

We need to fire all the RINO Senators.

The Freedom Caucus balked yesterday after seeing the Senate version, which barely trimmed spending at all. Trump and Johnson conferred with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and hammered out an agreement to get at least $1.5 trillion in reductions, although it's not clear what time scale that uses...

I think it's pretty clear they mean that over a 10-year window, which is what they always mean.

Elon Musk was shooting for one trillion in cuts per year. The Senate has promised to find $1.5 trillion in savings -- but note that Grifter Washington always talks about budgets in ten-year windows. So what they're talking about is $150 billion per year, for ten years.

And oh, by the way, they always lie even about that. They tend to claim they're planning for no cuts in the short term, years 1 through 6, but then HUGE cuts in years 7 through 10.

Spoiler alert: We never get to years 7 through 10. Years 7 through 10 always remain 7-10 years away.

Still, passing a budget does allow Congress to use reconciliation to pass a lot of stuff with a simple majority.

It's the bill Trump wanted, at least.

House Republicans on Thursday approved a budget framework allowing lawmakers to start ing President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."

The legislation will implement elements of Trump's domestic policy agenda, which includes tax cuts and increased spending on defense, energy, and border security.

The budget blueprint was approved Thursday by a vote of 216 to 214. Ultimately, two Republicans voted no. The vote is a victory for Trump and other Republican leaders who spent days convincing fiscal hawks within the Republican party to vote for the bill despite their frustration over the level of spending cuts included in the Senate version of the plan that passed on Saturday. The Senate framework outlines only about $4 billion in spending cuts. The House version seeks at least $1.5 trillion.

Now that Republicans have passed identical versions of the framework in the House and Senate, they are able to unlock a special budget tool known as reconciliation -- a complicated process that allows them to avoid a filibuster in Senate and pass a final version of the legislation with a 51-vote simple majority.

The bill includes $4 billion in tax cuts and, of course, an increase in the debt ceiling of $5 trilly.

Posted by: Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (402) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

President Trump is quite the fan of executive orders, and because Congress has mostly abrogated its responsibilities, it makes sense for him to use that power to begin the shift to a more law-abiding and rational election system. Everything in his elections executive order is reasonable and very obviously long overdue.

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Protects the Integrity of American Elections

It all sounds nice, and the second a Democrat sits in the Oval Office it will be destroyed with the stroke of a pen.

Congress must act, and use the power giving to it by the United States Constitution. It isn't even complicated. No penumbras and emanations; just a few simple sentences granting Congress the right to regulate state elections for representatives, and senators.

Constitution Of The United States: Article 1, Section 4

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Oh... there might be an argument about Congress regulating the presidential elections, since electors are simply "chosen," but that is a fight worth having. It seems unlikely that the SCOTUS will reaffirm Congressional power to regulate some elections but not the presidential election.

Regardless, it is up to Congress to act. But they probably won't because the marvelous status quo of the uniparty makes Congress wealthy, and almost entirely insulated from repercussions for their shady, grifting acts. Cleaning up the elections process would jeopardize that, and they won't risk it.

If they do take up the banner of election integrity, it will be very interesting indeed to see who defects to the fascists across the aisle. In the Senate: Collins? Murkowski? McConnell? And in the House: Fitzpatrick? Bacon?

Now is the time to act... there is no guarantee that the 2026 mid-term elections will turn out well for the forces of election integrity, which is shorthand for freedom and American Exceptionalism!

Sure, if President Trump is successful in reorienting the economy toward domestic production and stopping the hemorrhaging of money we don't have to foreign manufacturers, then it is entirely possible that the mid-terms will be a referendum on a new American century! That sounds great! But why risk it. Right now, the Republicans have a bare-minimum majority in both houses, and the tone of the country seems supportive of a coherent election integrity policy that would merely fall into line with the rest of the free world.

So stop dawdling and vote on a comprehensive bill; and call it something cool like The MAGA Voting Rights Act of 2025!

Come on... a fella can dream!

[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 (368) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Industry
Preston Dickinson

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 10 /25

Good morning kids. As you can see from the links in the Politics section and in going over the past weeks even as far back as when President Trump was sworn in, it certainly looks as if the volume and frequency of toxic waste gushing forth from the open sewer that is Jasmine Crockett probably would provide fodder fo revery day for weeks on end. But as CBD and I noted on the latest episode of the podcast linked here and in the sidebar, why bother?

Disgusting as she is, the more that average Americans see and hear what she has to say, along with the garden variety, liars, racists, deviants and criminals that comprise the Democrat Party, the more they will at a minimum dig their own political graves at least in the near term for the '26 midterms. Naturally, election thievery on their part notwithstanding, as I am convinced happened last week in the special election that restored a radical leftist majority to the Wisconsin state supreme court. And of course going back to 2020. But that's crazy conspiracy talk, never mind the circumstantial and actual physical evidence and eyewitness accounts that at the barest of bare minimums should cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of the outcomes.

But again, as with Crockett, I'm repeating a sad old story that unless something changes at the state and national levels will also repeat itself. It is heartening to see that some actions are being seriously attempted legislatively to at least try to prevent non-citizens from voting,

The Republican-led House is slated to hold another vote on the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.

As expected, the propaganda press and left-wing activists have resorted to spreading lies about the legislation to convince the American people that it should be opposed. But these lies are purposely designed to guilt Americans into sacrificing their right to free and fair elections. Here’s how to refute them.

It's going to be a constant battle to fight the massive law fare campaigns pre and post elections by such characters as Marc Elias and others. Beyond that, the insanity of mail-in ballots that was forced down our throats courtesy of the fakedemic lockdowns and other voter integrity laws that were dismantled at that time especially in the key swing states and districts along with motor voter and the necessity to clean up voter rolls every X years to insure students who reside in college towns only temporarily, dead people, those over the age of 150 and others are prevented from voting early and often.

Elsewhere, the continued reactions to the President's tariff regime is taking up the bulk of the headlines as the markets continue to fluctuate as they seek some sort of equilibrium. On the positive front, more nations are now ready to make deals to drop their barriers and tariffs in return for us to do the same, and with all of that, this happened:

U.S. markets surged late Wednesday following an announcement by President Donald J. Trump that he would ease tariff measures against most of America’s trading partners as the White House begins bilateral negotiations with around 75 countries—except for China, which saw tariff rates on its goods increase to 125 percent.The Dow Jones closed at 40,608.45, a gain of 2,962.86 points on the day—the single largest daily point gain in history. Meanwhile, the S&P 500, which saw significant volatility over the past week, saw nearly a 10 percent gain, closing at 5,456.90.An estimated 30 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, marking the heaviest—by volume—trading day in Wall Street’s history. The surge in trading almost entirely came after President Trump posted on Truth Social that he would pause his reciprocal tariffs—although not sector-specific tariffs on products such as steel—on all foreign nations, except China, with only the 10 percent global tariff remaining in effect while his White House begins negotiations with a number of countries on a new, more equitable trade system accounting for the interests of the United States.

Trump is hanging tough with the Chi-Coms as he should considering their goal is absolute global political domination. Their zeal is positively Islamic.

A $1.9 trillion “tsunami” is headed for American industry — and it’s coming from China.
The Communist country of 1.3 billion people has shifted that much cash into amping up its factories in just four years in an effort to overwhelm manufacturers around the world with an influx of cheap goods.
President Trump’s 125% tariff on all Chinese imports into the US — which he announced Wednesday as he paused steep duties on most other countries — is actually just the latest protective measure against China.
The European Union, Brazil, Mexico and Thailand have either imposed new tariffs in the last few months, or are considering such measures to protect their own industries from Chinese imports.
“The tsunami is coming for everyone,” said Katherine Tai, trade representative for former President Joe Biden, told The New York Times. Over the past four years, China has pulled money from funding housing construction and put it into building factories, with state-controlled banks granting industrial borrowers almost $2 trillion in extra financing, according to new data from China’s central bank, obtained by The Times.

China is building new factories nonstop and outfitting old ones with the latest tech, churning out products from cars to phones to fertilizer at an unprecedented rate — and all bound for foreign shores.
The Times reported that China is set to overtake Germany with the world’s largest car factory. Chinese carmaker BYD is building not one, but two plants that are bigger than the current record holder in Wolfsburg, Germany. . .

. . . Trump’s unprecedented tariff on Chinese goods could similarly shield the US from the coming wave.
Steep on cars, for example, have already stopped cheap Chinese EVs from decimating the American auto industry.
But it’s already too late for some local manufacturers. Chinese imports to Thailand have caused manufacturers in that country to plunge by 50%, ASEAN Briefing reported last year.

WEll, there's lots of blame to go around insofar as previous administrations and myriad self-imposed artificial factors that drove up the cost of doing business here made offshoring our manufacturing to China and elsewhere at the expense of the American worker an easy decision to make.

Tariffs alone won't address and solve this crisis, but it's a first step along with many others, like DOGE and immigration enforcement plus a reigniting of the AMerican entrepreneurial spirit and the notion of rugged individualism that has been slimed and stripped away from several generations of American youth courtesy of academia and the woke anti-American culture mongers.

Beyond that, there are some very disturbing stories in the crime section, among them a Texas woman force feeding her pregnant daughter abrtion pills, a "mass" shooting in Virginia, a crazy shootout in LA, as well as a rash of teen suicides linked to some sort of "extortion" racket coming out of Nigeria.

Plus, lots more from around the world, across the nation and up your street , for your consideration 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.

Have a great day.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:30 AM | Comments (317) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 10 April 2025

Top Story

• The cost to query advanced AI APIs has dropped 99.7% in the past 18 months. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That's a pretty dramatic shift. What's causing it seems to simply be competition.
  
  Hardware costs have come down - a bit - and the new hardware is also more energy efficient - a bit.
  
  Training costs for creating new models have soared, on the other hand - DeepSeek's bullshit notwithstanding - but investor money keeps pouring in to cover that.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (180) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - April 9, 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: Previously unknown advertisement for Miller Lite]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (436) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Parental Cafe

Smailholm Tower, on the England-Scotland border
by @jimscottphoto
Smailholm, Danny? Mmmm, Danny? MMmmm?

I know it's just moving with smooth tiny steps but this is creepy as anything. (IG)

It's not nice to play tricks on such a very good girl. Out, vile weed!

Cat is mesmerized by the printer. Oooh, samesies!

Old dog is not amused by the new pup.

Kitty wants some pets.

Not really "out of control" per se, but you know they're fixin' to do some schemin' about some mischief.

More parenting skills.

Dog does some kittysitting.

Posted by: Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Federal Judges Block Deportations... Again

The Supreme Court decision stated that Trump could deport aliens under the Alien Enemies Act... but all people being held by the government have the right to file habeas corpus petitions questioning the basis for their detention.

So now would-be deportees are filing habeas writs, and judges are staying their deportation until the hearing.

This doesn't seem to have changed the game much, except that the left can't judge-shop to put every case in front of Boasberg in DC.

But there are plenty of activist judges out there, including in more conservative areas.

That doesn't mean the Supreme Court case didn't mean anything. Illegals can't argue against the validity of the law Trump is employing any longer. They may argue that the law is being misapplied to them, but they can't just say "This law is unconstitutional." They can only stay if they can establish a particular error in the application of the law to them.

As you may know, Elon Musk revealed that Biden gave Social Security numbers to millions of illegals.

Illegals used to be assigned ITINs, Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, so they could pay taxes.

Instead, Biden began issuing the Social Security numbers, which have been used off-brand for decades for purposes of claiming to be an American citizen.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is claiming that Social Security numbers were handed out last year to more than 2 million immigrants who entered the United States illegally and that those cards were subsequently used to collect benefits the migrants are not entitled to receive.

Musk, speaking at a weekend town hall meeting in Wisconsin, displayed data from a Social Security program called Enumeration Beyond Entry, which indicated that nearly 2.1 million migrants were given Social Security numbers in fiscal year 2024 alone.

That figure was a sharp increase from the 590,000 noncitizens who received Social Security numbers in fiscal year 2022 and the 964,000 who received them in 2023, EBE data showed. The Trump administration estimates that 11 million immigrants who crossed the border illegally are currently living in the U.S.

...

Musk and venture capitalist Antonio Gracias, who has been assisting the Department of Government Efficiency in examining the Social Security Administration, claim that the free-wheeling nature of how Social Security numbers are reportedly being given to migrants is an example of fraudulent activity within the SSA.

"This literally blew us away," Gracias said at the town hall. "We went there to find fraud, and we found this by accident."

...

Once authorized to legally work in the U.S., migrants are eligible to apply for a Social Security card. However, the agency stipulates that for non-U.S. citizens to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), they must have been granted a certain classification by the Department of Homeland Security.

Those classifications include:

Being legally admitted into the country as a permanent resident

Granted conditional entry or asylum

Paroled into the U.S. or admitted as a refugee

However, Gracias alleged that migrants were given Social Security numbers automatically through the mail without being interviewed or being required to show identification after applying for and receiving a work permit.

This particular program began under Trump:

The EBE program that distributes Social Security numbers to migrants with work authorizations began in 2017 during President Donald Trump's first White House term. The initiative was established as a partnership between the SSA and DHS to assist the SSA in efficiently issuing Social Security numbers to migrants who were deemed eligible.

The SSA's inspector general wrote in 2019 that the program allowed Homeland Security to vet the legal status of migrants who were eligible to work and then automatically issue them with Social Security numbers. As part of the process, migrants seeking Social Security numbers were required to provide proof of their legal status.

A SSA spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from NewsNation seeking comment about the claims or the EBE data Thursday.

Musk said Sunday the issuance of the Social Security numbers was part of a "massive large-scale program" by the Biden administration to "import as many illegals as possible, ultimately to change the entire voting map of the United States and disenfranchise the American people and make it a permanent deep blue one-party system from which there would be no escape."

That is some useful context for this news: Trump has sent millions of illegals the message, through the app Biden developed to let illegals get permission to enter the US while they're waiting for their asylum trial, to get out of the US, now.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordered migrants who received immigration parole under the Biden-era CBP One app to leave the United States "immediately." Since its inception in January 2023, more than 936,000 migrants have been granted immigration parole under the app.

"Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security," DHS officials said in response to an inquiry from the Associated Press. In an email to a Honduran migrant family who entered the U.S. in late 2024, DHS officials stated, "It's time for you to abandon the United States."

Other migrants reportedly shared their message from DHS on social media platforms. The notices were sent to migrants via the recently relaunched CBP Home app -- a re-engineered version of the CBP app designed to aid migrants in self-deportation. It is not clear at this time, how many of the nearly one million CBP One-admitted migrants will be impacted by the oreder.

In a statement on Monday, DHS officials said the Biden administration used immigration parole authority "more than any president since it was created in 1952. Officials said the use of CBP One to grant blanket paroles to migrants "further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history."

Posted by: Ace at 06:32 PM | Comments (182) | Trackbacks (Suck)

S&P Posts Its Biggest One-Day Gain In History as Markets Rally
Plus: Is China "In a Box"?

I don't cover the markets. I don't want to cover the markets. But if CNN is going to put up minute-by-minute chyrons about the market when it's going down, then I'm going to counter by flooding the zone when it's going up.

Huge day for stocks.

The stock market mounted one of its biggest rallies in history after President Donald Trump announced a pause in some of his "reciprocal" tariffs on the globe, causing a market that has been under extreme pressure for the past week to explode higher.

The S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% to settle at 5,456.90 for its biggest one-day gain since 2008. For the broad market index, it was the third-biggest gain in post-WWII history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,962.86 points, or 7.87%, to close at 40,608.45 for its biggest percentage advance since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16% to end at 17,124.97, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever.

About 30 billion shares traded hands, making it the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history, according to records that go back 18 years.

"I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately," Trump posted on his Truth Social. Trump, in the same post, said he was raising the tariff on China higher again to 125%.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later clarified that all countries except China would return to the 10% baseline tariff rate, down from the higher rates that previously shocked the markets, as negotiations take place. The pause would not apply to sector tariffs, Bessent said.

At Hot Air, Duane Patterson says that Trump is isolating China and claims that he's making countries choose between access to the US markets and China.

I don't understand the claim -- is Trump leading an effort to have all countries impose tariffs on China?

Anyway, here's some of his thoughts:

First, the tariffs to every country was meant to cause the free world to make a choice - China or us. According to Scott Bessent on the White House lawn early this afternoon, north of 75 countries have chosen us. They are clamoring to renegotiate trade deals. Inevitably, every one of these deals will benefit the United States. It defies logic to believe that America's position vis-a-vis trade with any individual country is going to be worse off after negotiating a new deal. With some countries, we'll be nominally better off. With other countries, we'll be in a much more equitable place. And because we have the commitment of 75+ countries to renegotiate trade, Trump is pausing the tariffs for 90-days in good faith in order to let the negotiators do their thing.

The bottom line is none of these pending trade deals would have been offered or committed to without the tariffs used as an attention-getter.

Second, by forcing the world to choose between the United States and China, China has become further isolated. Trump has all the leverage in the world to squeeze China, and squeezing them is exactly what he's doing.

A reporter asks if this "trade war" -- a characterization Treasury Secretary Bessent disputes -- is now "China versus the rest of the world."

Posted by: Ace at 05:28 PM | Comments (375) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Of Course: The US Knew That Seven American Troops Contracted Covid-19 at the Wuhan Games in 2019, But Covered It Up to Protect Hunter Biden's Business Partners in China

I'm assuming that last part.

Joe Biden is a traitor and forgot to pardon himself.

A newly uncovered Defense Department report reveals that seven U.S. troops may have contracted COVID-19 during the 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan--months before the official pandemic timeline. The Biden administration kept the report from the public for over two years, despite a legal requirement to release it.

The World Military Games featured active duty military personnel from various countries competing in Olympic-style games. That year they were held in Wuhan.

Just down the street from the Wuhan Infectious Virus Lab.

Key Details:

A December 2022 Pentagon report shows seven U.S. service members showed COVID-like symptoms after attending the 2019 Wuhan games.

The Biden administration withheld the report, which was required by law to be made public in 2022, until it was quietly posted online in March 2025.

Evidence contradicts Biden officials' 2021 claims and adds weight to theories that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab before December 2019.

Diving Deeper:

The Biden administration withheld a critical Pentagon report for more than two years, one that sheds new light on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, seven U.S. military service members may have contracted COVID-19 during or shortly after the 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan, China--a full two months before China officially acknowledged the outbreak.

The report, completed in December 2022, was mandated for public release by the National Defense Authorization Act. Yet, the administration only passed it to select Congressional committees and failed to make it publicly accessible as required. It wasn't until March 2025 that the report quietly appeared on a Defense Department site under a section dedicated to "quality-of-life" issues--far from public view.

This revelation directly contradicts claims made by Biden administration officials in 2021, including then-Defense Department spokesman John Kirby, who stated there was "no knowledge" of any infections among the U.S. participants. The Trump administration had also denied early on that troops were tested or showed symptoms, citing the timing of the games before China's outbreak announcement.

Held just miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology--where controversial, U.S.-funded gain-of-function research was conducted--the 2019 games have long drawn suspicion from national security and public health experts.

...

Adding more context, athletes from European countries such as France, Germany, and Italy also reported flu-like symptoms in Wuhan, describing the city at the time as unusually empty--a "ghost town." All seven American service members recovered quickly, and the Pentagon has not revealed when it first became aware of the cases.

Deep State bureaucrats love hiding information and do so with impunity because they know DC judges and juries will never convict them for self-dealing and even treason.

The acting commissioner of the IRS, for example, is resigning rather than authorize ICE gaining access to IRS records about illegal aliens.

The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is planning to resign following the agency's data sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to support the Trump administration's efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, three sources familiar with her plans told ABC News.

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (277) | Trackbacks (Suck)

White House Stops Responding to "Journalists" With Pronouns In Their Email Signature Lines

This is a solid heuristic for weeding out the nonsense. Nonsense pronouns means nonsense questions and nonsense hit pieces.

The Trump White House has begun declining to respond to media requests from reporters who include gender pronouns in their email signatures. The move aligns with the administration's broader rejection of what it calls "gender ideology" in the federal government.

Key Details:

"As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in an email to a New York Times reporter asking about climate research.

Katie Miller, a senior adviser at the Department of Government Efficiency, echoed that approach in a separate exchange, telling another Times journalist, "I don't respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts."

The policy reflects a broader Trump administration stance that has barred federal employees from listing preferred pronouns in government emails and cracked down on DEI-related practices across agencies.

Meanwhile:

Posted by: Ace at 03:21 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump Builds the China Tariff Wall Ten Feet Higher While Announcing a "Pause" on Tariffs for Other Countries; Markets Soar

Trump announced he would "pause" higher reciprocal tariffs on many countries while sticking firm to a 10% "universal tariff" on all foreign goods.

James Madison informs me that the higher tariffs are only paused for countries that didn't retaliate:

The 10% pause is for everyone who didn't retaliate.

The EU did retaliate.

Their tariffs should still be at 35%.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, looking for laughs with Ivan Reitman

China retaliated against the US by announcing an 84% tariff on US goods. This is a silly gesture, as China barely buys anything from us. They mostly just steal.

Trump trumped China by jacking the China tariff up to 125%.

The White House is clarifying that Trump's announcement of a 90-day tariff "pause" means that the "tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10% tariff" during that time, while "negotiations are ongoing."

That respite does not apply to China, which will see U.S. tariffs on its goods rise to 125%.

The markets liked the 90-day pause on tariffs for countries other than China.

Dow surges 1,800 points after Trump signals a 90-day pause on tariffs

Stocks surged after President Donald Trump announced a pause in tariffs, causing a market that's been under extreme pressure the last 5 days to explode higher.

The S&P 500 gained 6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2159 points, or 5.7%. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 8%.

Stocks touched their session highs as Treasury yields eased following a strong bond auction. Earlier, yields had risen above 4.5%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was last at 4.4%.

China announced it will impose an 84% levy on U.S. goods starting Thursday. This comes after U.S. tariffs of 104% on Chinese imports took effect shortly after midnight. The EU also approved its first set of tariffs on the U.S. set to start April 15.

Kevin O'Leary says he wants Trump to hit China with a 400% tariff to get Xi on a plane to DC immediately. He says all they do is cheat and steal IP, and it's time to bring them to heel.

He says that Xi will be kicked out of office the moment these high tariffs begin to hurt China's economy, so Xi will be forced to make major concessions to Trump.

The CNN panel explodes with All the Outrage, obviously.

Posted by: Ace at 02:13 PM | Comments (421) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Texas AG Ken Paxton Announces Challenge to Supercuck RINO John Cornyn

Breitbart:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a primary challenge against the Lone State state's longtime Sen. John Cornyn in what might shape up to be an ugly battle.

A Republican, Cornyn has held the U.S. Senate seat from Texas since 2002 while Paxton has been active in Texas politics since he ascended to attorney general in 2015. In his announcement, Paxton said the state needs a new senator to "stand up for Republican values."

"I'm announcing that I'm running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, who apparently is running again for his fifth term, which would put him there three decades. It's definitely time for a change in Texas," Paxton told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on her program.

Cornyn is one of the group of eight or so liberal Republicans who vote against conservative priorities. And when they do vote for those priorities, it is only because an intense pressure campaign has convinced them they are putting their careers at risk if they refuse. Thom Tillis, for example, whines that he was pressured to vote for Trump's nominees, and not-so-secretly schemed to get Pete Hegseth's brother's ex-wife (this sounds like the Spaceball joke) to come forward and make unfounded accusations against Hegseth to give him cover to vote against Hegseth.

In the end, Tillis voted for Hegseth -- but only because MAGA informed him that his senate seat was in danger if he didn't.

That's the same kind of McCain bullshit that Cornyn has been doing for decades now.

Yet he claims, preposterously, that he's Fighting For President Trump and Paxton is the guy trying to undermine Trump:

"During his first term John Cornyn voted with President Trump more than 95% of current Senators, securing the votes for his biggest accomplishments as his Whip," said the post. "Democrats are trying to destroy President Trump, and he and Texas need a battle-tested conservative who knows how to protect his agenda in the Senate and won't be outsmarted by Chuck Schumer."

Give me a break.

At least one recent poll from Texas Public Opinion Research gives Paxton a 10-point edge over Cornyn for the time being.

Cornyn is one of Mitch McConnell's loyalists.

And speaking of: McConnell just voted against another Trump nominee, in an act that JD Vance called out as the "one of the great acts of political pettiness" from McConnell.

Vice President JD Vance lit up Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after the senator voted against the nomination of Elbridge Colby to serve as Under Secretary of Policy at the Defense Department, describing the move as a grand display of "political pettiness."

"Mitch's vote today -- like so much of the last few years of his career -- is one of the great acts of political pettiness I've ever seen," Vance said, as Colby's nomination brought out the worst of globalists.

In a statement explaining his vote against President Donald Trump's choice, McConnell asserted that Colby's public record "suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy."

"The prioritization that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy," McConnell continued.

Give me money, China.

Posted by: Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (419) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Open Thread

Happy Humpday.

Below, Trump and Elon's son X.

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (394) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Morning Rant

What to make of it?

Closing in on a week from Trump's announcement of tariffs, it's been a wild ride so far. Markets are up. Markets are down. Countries are dealing. Countries are doubling down. Some support them. Some don't. Some - perhaps most - are confused. I know I am confused about some aspects of it, but then I have a slightly different view of tariffs than many. I also think the Trump administration hasn't gone out of its way to be very clear about how it views tariffs, which is probably part of the problem.

That aside, I figure I'll throw my tattered hat into the commentary ring on it, too. To do that, though, I think it might be best to start with a simple question: what is a tariff? That's easy, as far as it goes. A tariff is a tax on the movement of goods over national borders. They can be outbound or inbound, though inbound (a tax on foreign goods) is much more common. As with all taxes, they are not free and somebody pays them. It usually ends up being a mixture of your own citizens and foreigners. But why tariffs, and why are they good or bad?

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Bénédiction d'une isba neuve
Vasily Maximovich Maximov

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 9 /25

Good morning kids. First, our good friend, the estimable commentator and historian Michael Walsh and his fantastic site The Pipeline are back up and once again diving right into the fray! Welcome back to you and your great crew.

So, vile, foul revolting in the extreme Jasmine Crockett once again opened her pie hole to vomit out garbage. I hate having to inflict her on you all, but it is what it is.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) advocated for illegal immigration in the U.S. and suggested black Americans were “done picking cotton.” Crockett’s words reportedly came while “speaking at Grace Baptist Church in Connecticut,” according to commentator Collin Rugg. While speaking, Crockett claimed that she was going around the U.S. educating “people about what immigrants” do for the U.S., and claimed that nobody is “trying to go and farm right now.”

And yet, disgusting as this is, it does serve to illustrate a point that is both a condemnation of her party and why Trump and his policies going forward might have even more of a salutary effect on more than just the economy but on American culture itself. Beyond the fact that cotton, to the best of my knowledge hasn't been picked by hand for decades. Let's pick this ninny's statement apart point by point. First, the immigration issue that democrats and other open borders globalists keep yammering on about: the so-called people who we must have by the multi-millions to do the jobs that Americans supposedly won't do, i.e. pick crops. Even leftist icon Cesar Chavez referred to illegal aliens as wetbacks and was vocally and passionately in favor of mass deportations of illegals because they depressed the wages of legal citizens who were farm workers.

Second, and I'm only guessing, there are likely very stiff tariffs and import duties/restrictions on not only American grown cotton but of course on American grown produce and other food stuffs all over the world. Hitting back at these countries to force their markets open to our goods will have salutary effect across the board.

Of course her using the example of picking cotton and trying to make an allusion to Trump and company and his policies as somehow akin to the reimposition of slavery and or Jim Crow on blacks, which is laughable in the extreme since it was her party that fought civil war and then resisted all efforts at true integration and assimilation since the end of that war that they started.

As for jobs that Americans will or won't do, there's enough blame to go around as to why American industry decamped willingly or otherwise overseas. Cheap labor and lowered regulatory costs were and remain a major factor.

In the long term, if allowed to remain in place, Trump's tariff regime can have a salutary effect on many levels. Economic and societal. If we insist that only legal citizens can work here at home, then there is no job that Americans won't do since businesses will have no alternative but to tap the American labor market.

President Trump wants to get America’s vast army of “dropout” men back into the workforce. Attention to this problem is long overdue.

Nearly 7 million men in the prime of life — over a tenth of the 25-to-54 age group — are neither working nor looking for work these days.

But Team Trump is trying to fix the problem with the wrong tools.

They argue that trade policy — tariffs — and industrial policy — special treatment for manufacturing — will reverse the long-term flight from work by men, by creating high-paying jobs to lure them back to work.

This approach may sound sensible to some. Unfortunately, it is likely to fail — even though the White House could succeed through other pro-work policies.

Once upon a time in America, working-age men without jobs were unemployed laborers. . .

. . . But that’s ancient history: Today, for every “prime age” man who is actually unemployed — out of a job but looking — there are three who are neither working nor looking for work.

That means the overwhelming majority of jobless men nowadays are NILFs (for “not in labor force”. And unemployed men differ fundamentally in both mindset and behavior from NILF men. . .

. . . Millions of NILF men live work-free existences financed by an array of disability programs and their associated “poverty” benefits. This disability archipelago incentivizes helplessness, and at a terrible cost in human potential. America’s disability system is so dysfunctional that no one in DC can tell you just how many people are currently getting benefits from its crazy-quilt of subcomponents (SSDI, SSI, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, state-level disability programs, worker’s comp programs — and more). Before the pandemic, however, I estimated that over half of America’s prime-age NILF men were getting benefits from one or more of these programs — and that over two-thirds lived in homes taking in at least one ­disability benefit. . .

. . . Yet with nearly 12 million positions open, and employers almost begging for applicants, NILF rates for prime age men barely budged. Millions of those unfilled jobs during the “Great Resignation” did not require high school diplomas, only the “skills” of showing up at work, on time and sober. But the NILF men did not come — even though close to half had at least some college.

Consider, too: Back in 2022 about 800,000 of those unfilled slots were in manufacturing. If idle dropout men did not flock to available factory jobs then, why should we expect them to be lured to future factories built under tariff threats? The miracle of the market does not cure social pathologies. All too many male workforce dropouts are detached (from society), dependent (on government benefits and pain meds), and ­defeated. These men will not be tempted to rejoin the workforce by good paychecks alone.We need other approaches.

That's what Crockett and her ilk are really railing against. They need men and women of all races to not pick cotton but to sit on their asses and pick their noses waiting for Uncle Sugar to hand out welfare and bennies to keep them hooked on the government. Generations of Americans, black and white indoctrinated into being enslaved to the Democrat created welfare state, from whence Democrats maintain their power.

This is what DOGE and the tariff regime is attempting to smash. It won't work by itself. Industry won't magically reappear overnight. Along with what is being done, as has been promoted for years, there must be mass incentives like tax and regulatory holidays to incentivize the building of factories and manufacturing plants here in the USA plus the de-incentivization of sloth such as it is. Certainly more trade schools as well as apprenticeship programs in all the trades, perhaps schools that would be tied to US industries, and/or even physically located on or near their premises. As well as the expansion of what I remember from my junior high and High School days as shop class.

Along with industry, the American work ethic and concomitant attitudes about families and morality in general must be promoted. And all of that is something the Democrat/Left will recoil from like Dracula being doused with holy water.

. . . we've tried the free trade route. The promise was: send our jobs abroad, and we'll all get rich on cheaper TVs and tuna. But unless your job was as a hedge fund manager or Amazon warehouse robot, that promise came with a footnote: "Offer not valid in manufacturing towns, rural America, or Detroit."

Trump's reciprocal tariffs aren't about slapping China for fun (although it's fun, particularly after COVID). They're about reshaping incentives so that manufacturing in the US becomes attractive again.

It's already happening. Steel mills are reopening, auto plants are expanding, and companies that used to run to China at the first sign of a union now think, "Hmm, maybe Toledo isn't so bad after all."

A White House report from earlier this year backs it up: Trump's first-term tariffs led to substantial reshoring in key industries. These aren't your gig-economy gigs. These are jobs with decent wages, long-term career paths, and the kind of dignity that's been outsourced for the past 30 years.

Sure, there's a concern that tariffs could mean higher prices. But let's be honest — if paying an extra 50 cents for a pair of socks means your neighbor gets a job, that's a trade most Americans are happy to make. And with targeted tax cuts or direct consumer . . .

. . . Plus, domestic production brings efficiencies. Once we scale up, costs come down. We're not just making America competitive again — we're building a robust industrial base that can weather future storms, pandemics, and supply chain chaos.

We used to be the country that built the Hoover Dam, the Model T, and the Apollo rocket. Then we became the country that builds... PowerPoints.

Reciprocal tariffs are a brash, unapologetic way of saying we want to make things again — better, more substantial, and made by Americans earning real wages. It's not just economic policy — it's national therapy.

Let Wall Street clutch its pearls. The real action is in factories, foundries, and main streets that get a second shot at life. America isn't just open for business — it's open for building. And that's a trade war worth fighting.

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 day.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• The idea that the President can and should direct the entire executive branch runs counter to the technocratic norms that shaped modern federal governance. 
  Welcome to the Unitary Executive
  
• Kurt Schlichter: America's response to the leftist framing of Marine La Pen must be loud, bold condemnation - and contempt.
  The Globalist Authoritarians Are Playing With Fire
  
• Karol Markowicz: How much longer will Democrats accept their supporters’ escalating calls for violence? . . A new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute found that more than half of left-leaning Americans say political violence is “acceptable” — with 55% of them seeing “some justification” for assassinating Trump. It certainly feels like a powder keg, as violence is excused and celebrated online as never before.
  Democrats lit the ‘assassination culture’ fuse — now their silence equals violence

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:35 AM | Comments (366) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 April 2025

Top Story

• Bluesky has become a home for humourless left-wing scolds, says Wired, which has long been a home for humourless left-wing scolds so they know a thing or two about it. (Wired) (archive site)
  
  Also it's paywalled. Wired. Paywalled. Humourless left-wing scolds who are... Never mind.

  What Brown experienced is familiar to any former Twitter/X user gathering their bearings on the young and decidedly more earnest social network Bluesky: a distinct humor-detection issue.

  Yes.
  
  Why has Bluesky become such a dumpster-fire of anauralia outpatients?

  Bluesky also got a big boost in users from mainstream television: MSNBC ran multiple segments about the social network, including bumps on Morning Joe, The Weekend, All In With Chris Hayes, and The Rachel Maddow Show. Regular MSNBC viewers who took the plunge might not be as familiar with the tenor and style of online conversation on the smart-ass social web.

  Oh. Well, yeah, that'll do it.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (163) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (4/8/25)

*****

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

"The fact is ain't none of y'all trying to go and farm right now. Okay, so I'm lying? Raise your hands... You're not. You're not. We done picking cotton. We are. You can't pay us enough to find a plantation." Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)

Quote II

“Mitch’s vote today — like so much of the last few years of his career — is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vice President, JD Vance.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 10:00 PM | Comments (471) | Trackbacks (Suck)