Good morning one and all to another fantastic day!
US and China Agree to Slash Tariffs for 90 Days
Dow futures rocket higher by 1,000 points after U.S.-China agree to cut tariffs
Trump says he will sign executive order on drug price caps
Whistleblowers say human trafficking hotline operator failed to report tips to law enforcement
Zelensky Says He’s Willing to Meet With Putin in Turkey
MA Councilwoman Incites Mob, Assaults Officers to Stop Arrest of Violent Illegal Alien
Return To Tradition: Pope Leo XIV To Reportedly Live Where Popes Are Supposed to Live
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Morning, Banjos.
I am so disappointed. Stop playing nice with people who will lie cheat and steal.
Unfortunately I think you and I both just have to accept people fundamentally don’t care. They don’t really care about atrocities that they can’t see, they don’t care if countries that state they want to dominate us control our supply lines, they don’t care if every product and patent gets stolen into a completely CCP owned “new competitor”. As long as they can make a profit this year or get cheap crap at Walmart…. that’s good, right?
Certainly Wall Street and the current crop of globalist management certainly don’t — look at link two.
“Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change…” — I didn’t realize this was the original Black Pill back in the day, but here we are.
Morning as well, Banjos. Morning all.
They don’t really care about atrocities that they can’t see
This is certainly true of the watermelons – as long as lithium is mined and refined where they don’t have to see the environmental effects, YAY, we get our electronics!!!
Yep, let’s be more like the Canadians who boycott goods and services from countries that don’t respect them.
Do we get to do the elbow-thing too or do we need our own slogan?
So, stop playing nice with everyone, everywhere, forever?
I have met people who have been solid in their dealings. They exist.
People sure, Nations? I’d say historically we and the Swiss are probably the best of the bunch, and we’ve both seized assets left in our care among other dishonorable actions.
But China is asshoe.
They may behave for a while, but they will go right back to their usual thievery and shenanigans as soon as there is a Democrat president.
China is only a bigger asshoe than the U.S. (as far as govts go).
Since I think the “Trade Deficit Crisis” is almost as real and scary as Climate Change, you’re going to have an uphill fight getting me worried about that. The IP theft is a known cost of doing business there, so how is it the Government’s business to protect idiot companies from their own decisions?
Meh… by any metric, tariffs are an economic drag. The national security argument (e.g., it is a bad idea to have your adversary make parts for your defense industry) is the only one I find even remotely compelling
As a geopolitical tool, time will tell, I guess. I remain skeptical of the whole endeavor.
The national security argument loses steam when you realize that so long as other FRIENDLY nations can make the stuff, it don’t need to get made here.
Hence my skepticism.
A twitter fight about the Pope’s bed… That’s got to be the most excitement surrounding that bed since the Borgia Pope.
MA Councilwoman Incites Mob, Assaults Officers to Stop Arrest of Violent Illegal Alien
Massholes.
It’s telling that the Dems consider illegal aliens to be their constituents.
In current year, their more important constituents in fact.
“the United States will save TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS”
Sure Don. Price controls never have any consequences.
You save all the money, because there is nothing to buy.
Heaven knows Medicare’s existing price caps have made medical pricing stable, clear and not at all screwing everyone who isn’t on Medicare to make up the deficits…. nope… never seen anything like that.
Populist economics!
Zelenskyy says he’s willing to meet with Putin in Turkey
Ever been in a Turkish prison?
Hmmm… and OMWC is headed there as well…. Pardon me while I dig out my tin foil hat…. OMWC is secretly a top State Department envoy!
Well, the name matches State Department actions, although I think they tend toward little boys.
OMWC captured on the secret SugarFree cameras.
That Oingo Boingo song doesn’t get the airplay anymore.
I’m just worried about the diplomatic crisis when OMWC steals Putin’s bicycle.
Jewdo fight!
I have zero idea if he can do this — given the wrangling over Medicare drug pricing in past legislation (and assuming this is only for Federal reimbursement / purchase of medication, hence Medicare I think), I wouldn’t think he could. But at this point — we’re very obviously in a “Throw crap at the wall if it sounds good and see if it sticks” instead of “Work with my party and Congress to make permanent proper changes” as we know. Which, given I don’t even know if Congress is bothering to show up these days is not terribly surprising. Still better than another 4 years of whoever-was-operating-the-Biden-puppet, true… but not my preferred style of governance. Well, see first comment about serenity. Can’t change this either.
Well, I’m sure the Dems will cheer this on and support it with legislation given their aversion to high drug prices, right? Right??!!
It’s a market that is so distorted I’m not sure how to go about fixing it.
I understand that for humanitarian purposes you may want to sell under cost to developing and poor countries. It’s harder for me to understand why its perfectly OK to sell in the French market for 40% of the cost of the same drug in the US.
The problem is that other countries have price controls which limits how much they can charge there, so the only way to recoup R&D costs and costs to actually get a drug to market (which are astronomical thanks to FDA regulations) they charge more in the US. Which is why innovation and R&D mostly only happens in the US, which will of course be killed by US price controls.
Yup. I get it. The US subsidizes drug R&D and production for the rest of the world.
My absolutely imperfect solution is to allow reimportation. But I’d expect countries and manufacturers to collude to make that very difficult.
When a market is so distorted by government actions that a possible improvement is to export the goods, then reimport the goods, you are no longer talking about anything remotely related to a free market. At this point I am not sure there is a path to fix healthcare policy.
The R&D costs are ONLY astronomical because of U.S. govt approval to market. Want to reduce drug costs – reduce the regulations (and allow liability claims against the manufacturers, both for side effects and failure to do what is claimed).
There is a path, complete removal of all subsidies and other aspects that prevent free exchange of goods and services, and let the chips fall where they might. Problem being that this would be so painful in the short term and long term as to be unmanageable.
JI – and the rest of the world generally outsources that approval to the US.
There are just so many market distortions its impossible fix without starting over.
How about the Republicans repeal the “Affordable” Care Act and unfuck the medical insurance industry?
^Now that, that right there is hilarious!
That’s only but a fraction of the problem.
A good chunk of this is our WW2 solution of having health insurance generally being part of employment and the market distortion and risk characteristics of the group versus individual markets.
That is a step toward unfucking it, but it was fucked long before Obama. The concept of insurance as anything other than a hedge against catastrophic but unlikely costs has to go if we want to fix healthcare.
@Jarflax – you mean I have to pay to see a doctor? That’s crazy talk!
I am currently uninsured. We have joined one of the crowdfunding groups (not one of the religious ones). It’s probably saving us $700/month on average (from $1200/month for insurance to $500/month in baseline fees and crowdfunding).
I should write it up for the site.
RC – I’d definitely be interested as I’m considering what I’m going to need to do for health insurance if I retire before Medicare eligibility age.
Look at the hoity-toity guy talking about retirement at a reasonable age.
@RC – I’m in the same boat as Sensei and would also be interested. The idea of Obama care does not appeal to me.
Haha. They can’t even cancel funding to Planned Parenthood.
https://www.congress.gov/days-in-session
Wish I had that many days off. 🙁
To be fair the idea is that they are supposed to return home to meet with constituents.
I’m NOT saying this is actually what happens.
I wish they did go on vacation. My Dem congresswoman spends all her “off” time running around the district taking credit for every cent of federal loot that is dispensed from Washington. If you read her press reports (almost reprinted verbatim by the news “journalists”) you’d think the money was coming directly from her own purse. So generous of her.
To lower the cost of medical services, the government should relinquish its control of the medical services industry.
I winder if the new pope can speak Italian already or if he has to learn. Curious minds and all.
Apparently he speaks a few languages including Italian.
Fr. Paul was one of my HS teachers.
https://www.fox29.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-friend-50-years-shares-insights-new-pope
I mentioned yesterday you all now have six degrees to the pope instead of Kevin Bacon.
He speaks fluent Italian. He also lived in Peru for decades so he speaks fluent Spanish.
I figured it had to be something like that. It would be awkward if he just spoke Chicagoan.
and apparently Incan.
It would help with negotiations with Putin… “Watcha got der in Russia… DA BEARS!”
Does he speak Jive?
and apparently Incan.
I’m not sure I’m OK with the Pope spouting Inca-tations in the Vatican. Seems like bad stuff will magically happen.
Incan? Is he a tOSU fan?
First instinct… cut spending instead… but at least veteran care is in the purview of the Fed. Two thoughts remain (on this topic… not saying I only have two thoughts in my brain just now):
One — LA? Better watch those contracts like a hawk, and better not be “In partnership with a local organization” or whatnot… otherwise, this is going to disappear like the billions California spent on “the homeless”, I expect.
Two — Hopefully they’ll use the service if/when built. Big part of the homeless problem as I understand it is that it is also an addict problem, and availing themselves of shelters or whatnot would mean acceding to rules that would prevent their drug use, so they won’t do it. I would hope/expect there’s an actual plan for this or an idea of the proportion they can serve (i.e. that would come in) otherwise. And since I also believe I’ve read that part of the reason there’s a large veteran contingent as homeless is self-medicating for PTSD and other post-combat issues, one would hope that actual mental health care would be included to help them work through this stuff. We definitely owe them that help and support.
Then I think of the VA and all of its scandals — and I realize that “Disappearing into ‘charities'” is the most likely outcome here anyway.
Many of the vets suffer the same problems as other homeless people. Vets are a cross section of humanity. Some didn’t fulfill their contracts and were mustered out early for various reasons.
To call someone a vet after failing to live up to their contracts is like rewarding those that don’t want to pay their student loans.
I also think we need some sort of dual-tier veteran status. Some guy that drove a forklift around a National Guard base stateside for 3 years or some guy that wash chasing skirts in Germany in the 90’s doesn’t need to be thanked in public or board a plane first.
Some guy who was in the shit in Vietnam or Afghanistan, different story.
Before one of the hockey games, they had the obligatory “Salute the Troops” where they have a veteran on the ice for the pregame.
It always irritates me anyway because they all wear their cammies and Marines have to wear Dress Blues.
This one really made me roll my eyes. It was a young female Lt from the army that had “Served two deployments to Kuwait”.
Kuwait? That was the cushiest deployment over there. Anytime we had a convoy to Kuwait from Iraq, our CO, 1st Sgt, or Comapny Gunny was sure to tag along because the food was amazing and they had a PX that was like a Wal-Mart.
Give me a break, I would have been embarrassed to had stood there for that.
I can’t be the only one who wondered if this group was headquartered in Washington State just to peg the irony meter. (Ref for anyone who hadn’t heard that little nugget of joy…)
i have never heard of any homeless initiative that has done anything to solve the problem of homelessness. One run out of the central bureaucracy in Washington and administered by the altruists in Los Angeles is bound to fare no better.
[“missed it by that much”]
Judges get something right, everyone complains.
TL;DW – Law at time of event says punitive damages can be awarded for workplace deaths related to Toxic gas.
Guy dies from Nitrogen asphyxiation at work.
Court rules Nitrogen is not a Toxic gas, so punitive damages do not apply.
The law has since been amended, but everyone is bemoaning the fact that the ruling was correct in regards to what the law said and the circumstances of the case.
Widow still gets ordinary wrongful death damages.
/End Summary
I don’t get the knee-jerk reaction to side with the “poor widow” against the “evil company” without more information about the actual character of each. Yes, the space needed an oxygen meter, but we don’t know if this is part of a pattern of laxity, or an aberration. We also know nothing of the character or circumstance of the widow. I see this story and go “according to the law, that is correct, if you dislike it, do as the legislature did and change it”. I am clearly not mainstream in that response.
https://signalcleveland.org/ohio-supreme-court-rules-nitrogen-gas-that-suffocated-a-timkensteel-worker-was-non-toxic/
Non-video source. Without lots of other research I’m not sure this case wasn’t an attempt to do an end run around Workers’ Compensation liability protections. Usually for gross negligence you can get around it.
I see quite the slant in the way that article is written. It seems the reporter isn’t happy with the ruling.
I agree, it’s not a toxic gas. He didn’t die from the nitrogen, he died from lack of oxygen.
Oh, you get the knee-jerk reaction. The widow likely doesn’t have a ton of money, and the business is presumed to have a bit pile of money. Therefore the business is evil.
Okay, mindreader.
Won’t somebody think of the poor law firm.
Good point. How do we make this “Lawyer pays”?
Not entirely unrelated –
Several years ago, at a plant owned by the same company i work for, we had a contractor die for want of oxygen. He was wearing a hood that you connect to compressed air that provided cooling when working around the furnaces. He hooked the hood up to a nitrogen line instead of a compressed air line. In order to do this, he had to change the connecter on his hood from an air chuck to a nitrogen chuck. The two compressed gasses have different connectors, on purpose. He put the hood on, went to work, and died shortly afterward. We were not found liable for any kind of negligence.
This is both funny and scary!
AOC Isn’t Ruling Anything Out, Including the White House
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rise to prominence worries some Democrats who say the base is taking the wrong lessons from the 2024 election
https://www.wsj.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-political-future-1b1ad7cc?st=uvHYeK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
[shhh, let them march off the cliff]
They take the same lesson from every election: PROG HARDER!!
They only lost because they didn’t call voters bigots enough.
Laugh all you want, but her massive Green New Deal slush fund got enacted into law.
Hence the “scary” part!
At least one person would vote for President Rack.
so if the FDA Medicaid and Medicare never existed what percent of the US population would currently be dying due to lack of proper medicine? more or less than 20?
We’d all have died under Reagan.
Seriously, you’re asking about the difference between the 50s and early 60s and now. We spend a huge amount of our economy on “healthcare” now that we didn’t then. I don’t think the outcomes justify the expenditure.
I dont think many would get away with being as fat as they are without high medical expenses.
Could it also be possible that things like hip replacements weren’t a thing in the ’50s?
So yes, now that we can easily replace hips, we are going to spend more on health care than the past.
We were also a nation of smokers 70 years ago. And getting cancer meant you needed to get your estate in order.
Nothing says “public good” like a government financed and backstopped stadium!
Cities Turn to Sports Stadiums to Snap Out of Downtown Doom Loop
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/washington-dc-city-stadium-deals-1127566b?st=bJ5xAq&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Hey, you can completely reverse the decades of policies that encourage bums and crime in the downtowns, fix the traffic issues inherent in centralization of commercial spaces, solve the parking problems that go along with those, and return business distribution to a model that predates the automobile by building a taxpayer subsidized luxury entertainment space for 8 or 81 days a year of use! It is in no way connected wealthy individuals getting a thing they want at the expense of the average citizen.
You mean Build a Mall, That Will Get Killed as soon as the Internet Comes Along?
Maybe we need a choo choo to go along with that!
Meanwhile, the fight here is about a stadium leaving a city, which would free up a big chunk of prime lakefront real estate.
I’m glad Virginia “lost” the battle for teams.
It’s like they never learn…put in some red light cameras while you’re at it fellas.
How come nobody has thought of this before?!
“Very Brexity things”
Natalie Solent (Essex) · Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · European Union · Opinions on liberty · Totalitarianism · UK affairs
Police face lawsuit after former officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet, reports the Telegraph:
A retired special constable is preparing to sue Kent Police after being arrested over a social media post warning about rising anti-Semitism.
Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers from the force he had served for a decade after replying to a pro-Palestinian activist on X.
The 71-year-old was detained for eight hours, interrogated and ultimately issued with a caution after officers visited his home on Nov 2 2023.
On Tuesday, Kent Police confirmed that the caution was a mistake and had been deleted from Mr Foulkes’s record, admitting that it was “not appropriate in the circumstances and should not have been issued”.
So long as the consequences of police misbehaviour are born by the taxpayer, not the police, why should they care? Words are cheap. They’ll settle out of court, promise not to do it again, and do it again.
Police body-worn camera footage captured officers scrutinising Mr Foulkes’’s collection of books by authors such as Douglas Murray, a Telegraph contributor, and issues of The Spectator, pointing to what they described as “very Brexity things”.
https://www.samizdata.net/2025/05/very-brexity-things/
“very Brexity things”
Wrong thinker.
You got a loisence for that opinion, guvnah?
It would take a heart of stone, etc.
By design – they are behaving exactly as they are told by their employers.
Paging Sean!
Record Beef Prices Poised to Hit Consumers This Summer
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/record-beef-prices-to-hit-consumers-this-summer-d36ae389?st=izfzKG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Strips were $7.99/lb this past weekend.
*shrug*
That being said, I have seen some fluctuating prices the past 3 weeks or so.
Pork chops are 1/3 the price of ground beef here.
Thin-sliced rib-eye was $32 a pound last week. I passed.
Pretty sure that is around double what I paid last time a year or so ago.
Why am I utterly unsurprised.
Let’s not mention the ridiculous (again think WW2) rent control laws.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/welfare-as-we-know-it-is-backand-its-bipartisan-medicaid-healthcare-big-government-f8a1ada6?st=nGnhPk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The rent control laws actually got way worse in 2018 or so – Cuomo signed a law that eliminates the ability for landlords to set big increases between tenants. In effect, around one-third of the city’s housing will never, ever be profitable again. They also fiddled with laws around repairs that in effect means repairs will never happen either.
Remember when the South Bronx was on fire in the seventies? That will be in every borough in a few years.
JFC.
“nothing left to cut”
Oh wow, great question!
I’m not sure what kind of “income” the pope has.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/how-many-accountants-does-the-pope-have-us-tax-code-1ffacd6c?st=tfVJ3H&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The pope is not paid a salary, but does recieve benefits in terms of room, board, medical care, travel, etc. However, the tax code does not tax income and benefits from being a foreign head of state. This rarely comes up, but was already in there.
So, no, they won’t tax the Pope for his papal benefits.
But… unrealized gains!
Estate tax is where the real money is at!!!
This Pope doesn’t know what sort of salary he has either. Mrs. Holiness handles all the financials.
She tells me not to worry my pretty little head.
Just wait until the wealth taxes kick in.
The inheritance taxes will be brutal when he dies.
None of that is the personal property of the Pope.
Wait a second though. Wouldn’t he lose his US Citizenship when he accepts the title of Pope (which includes being the leader of Vatican City)?
I don’t see why, if both countries allow dual citizenship, such as the U.S. and Peru.
Pick one.
I hate that shit.
Daily Ray of Sunshine
Bad Kitty, Bad.
…and they both get fed by the same guy…
Nice!
Good morning!
UnCiv: next time you should squad with me. I don’t know if the people giving you a hard time about your carry condition were being
New Yorkersassholes or if they were under the mistaken impression that we were using IDPA rules. Why people refuse to read the rules remains a mystery, if no longer a surprise.I won’t say that “Claustrophobia” was a particularly good stage, but I was pretty darn happy with “take it on the run.” And I was happy to see that people are improving and can actually make 15 yard shots without too much bitching. I finally had a flash of inspiration and might have a stage for next month.
I did get people complaining about safety issues on the town stage.
Adding: IDPA requires that your gun be “loaded to division capacity” which for a 1911 is mag capacity +1 because that’s the doctrine espoused by Bill Wilson/Larry Vickers/Ken Hackathorn et.al. If we still had SASS shooter participating (and I wish we did — they were much more helpful than our current crop) they carried with an empty chamber because that was the USA WWI-era doctrine. They also get to use period-correct holsters that don’t cover the trigger guard for that reason.
Their reasoning was that it was faster for time, and that the safety on the 1911 should be enough. One “I’m not comfortable doing that” should have been enough, but they kept wanting to debate my decision. I am way too new and am not even worried about time. I’m focused on being safe and accuracy. Trying to be fast messed with the accuracy given how little practice I’ve had so far.
I need more practice with irons. My time to accquire sight picture is slower than my instinct to take the shot.
That is a stupid reason and yes they should have backed down. I am disappointed in Tim for not shutting that down. You should absolutely not be worrying about time at this point, and yes keeping control of the muzzle even when showing clear is top priority.
To be fair, I’m not sure he was in earshot either time.
It’s probably ‘virtue signaling’ from the “never carry with an empty chamber” crowd being misapplied to the competition.
“A bizarre conspiracy that European leaders snorted cocaine en route to critical Ukraine talks has been roundly ridiculed by the French president’s office, after it was promoted by Russian trolls as well as American conspiracists such as Alex Jones.
“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation,” the Elysee Palace posted on X.”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/12/world-news/macron-condemns-cocaine-train-conspiracy-spread-by-russia/
What about Brigitte Macron’s penis?
It’s a stupid accusation but so what? Those assholes aren’t above doing blow and with the way they’re running things it wouldn’t surprise me.
I guess the gold wound up in Switzerland.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1w3jlqlp27o
Anyone who doesn’t think the Nazi’s were supported by almost half the world is an idiot.
Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day weekend!
I don’t understand how Trump is getting these 10%/30% tariff deals. Am I missing something?
The drug pricing is straight out of Biden’s playbook. Will the left finally acknowledge they like something, or will they have to come up with an excuse to hate something they wanted last year?
Our team has to change our name, and last night I suggested “The Chicago Popes”. That got a lot of support.
https://x.com/epaleezeldin/status/1921894994769575972
YAY!
So glad. I hate that stupid crap.
I still vividly recall the first time I rented a car that had that, in Aruba.
We get to a red light, the engine stops then promptly refuses to start again. Joy.
The rental guys, when they show: “Oh, we always turn that off first thing” :-/
I assume you will have the ability to determine if you want it off or on. Right now the EPA forces any option you select like stop/start, sport mode, etc that generates the EPA MPG figure to always default back that configuration upon restarting the vehicle.
I have this on our Acura and love it.
https://www.idlestopper.com/
Essentially all it does is “press the button” automatically every time you start the car. It’s ridiculous I had to both buy it and install it.
My car does that because it’s a hybrid and it keeps switching to the electric motor when idle.
If it were a real car, I’d be pissed at the stall out scaring me every time. (It still does.)
It’s not getting rid of the time change but I’ll take it. I hate that shit.
The Trump administration is never going to make any big changes that require Congress to go along.
But they continue to nibble away at the edges in ways that are great to see.
Lunchtime! Best work-bit so far:
Walking to my car past the freezer aisles, I see a ~4yo girl riding in the cart as mommy pushed her. Fifty feet away, I saw her and we made eye contact. I was last the aisle in seconds. Out of sight, she calls out, “Goodbye, person!
Sooopo cute. She kept repeating it! I just had to walk back. Back at the aisle, they were ten feet away.
“Hello, person!,” I greeted her as I waved. Right after I turned and continued to me car.
She again started repeating “Goodbye, person!” again, with perhaps *more* energy as I walked out the store.
*Gushes* Great moment.
Oh, and my Mngr fell on our bay floor. Our ‘factory’ floor. It hurt, but he’s fine.
The sky is falling! The waters are rising! Whycome people with money don’t believe us anymore?
It’s a paradox of South Florida’s super-heated real estate market: When homeowners like Cruz move out because of growing flood risks, somebody else always seems willing to move in — and often at a much higher price.
“Our housing value almost doubled in that time,” Cruz said. “That’s absolutely insane. Our house should not have been worth that much.”
The value of her home and thousands of others in Florida have been buoyed at least in part by what some experts call a climate denial bubble. A wave of reports in the last five years has pegged the size of the bubble in the billions and suggested a correction is looming, potentially a major one. It has yet to come.
Interesting (and telling) that the authors point to a handful of neighborhoods that don’t drain rainwater well — in a state of 22 million people — as proof that the climate is changing to the detriment of us all.
And if you point out that, if their theory was correct, no bank would give someone a mortgage to live anywhere near the coast, you’re labeled a “denier.”
It would be really interesting to see how interested banks would be loaning funds to people there was no federal flood insurance that they mandate buyers purchase. Sure there would be private insurance, but likely at much higher rates with certain properties being uninsurable.
I work for a real estate company now. We do gangbuster business in Florida.
The long timers here tell me that Florida (especially Miami) is great for real estate agents because of the churn.
Every rube from the rest of the country who gets rich decides that they want to buy a house/condo/mansion in Miami and live the dream. Soon they realize that that house/condo/mansion costs even more than a boat and decide to dump it. Luckily there is always another buyer out there.
When I check our top sellers in Miami, they are all attractive blond ladies who have had work done on parts of their bodies.
Shouldn’t someone have a climate intervention for Obama then? He must be struggling with denial if he bought that really expensive mansion in Martha’s Vineyard.
Oh, they know all right…
Essentially all it does is “press the button” automatically every time you start the car. It’s ridiculous I had to both buy it and install it.
Which leads me to wonder if the Biden EPA was threatening to prosecute shops installing defeat devices.
Unlike a diesel tune this is an allowable, but non default option. However, your point is a good one. It is a modification that can affect emissions.
“Marius Mangeac confirmed the discovery to Fox News Digital. He said he found the hoard in a field near Letca Veche, a small village in southern Romania…
“I took my detector and went out alone, as I often do, for exercise and to relax in the fields and forests,” he wrote in his post, which was translated from Romanian to English…
But suddenly his metal detector began beeping – and soon, Mangeac was looking at a hoard of 1,469 Roman coins…
After two strenuous days of photographing the coins, he handed them over to the town hall in Letca Nouă.”
https://nypost.com/2025/05/11/world-news/man-stumbles-across-hoard-of-priceless-coins-while-out-for-walk/
I would have sold them.
Nobody would have ever know if i had been the one to find those.
Definitive proof
We make a $129 filtered showerhead in China. With tariffs surging we explored US manufacturing,’ he wrote on X. ‘We found a US supplier. Our costs nearly tripled.’
To test consumer appetite, van Meer offered 25,000 shoppers a choice: the original $129 ‘Made in Asia’ shower head or an $239 ‘Made in USA’ version — an 85 percent increase in price.
At the conclusion of the experiment not a single customer bought the American-made version.
Furthermore, fewer than 1 percent got as far as adding the American product to their carts. Meanwhile, 3,500 bought the cheaper model.
‘It wasn’t a marketing failure—it was a referendum on price,’ van Meer said.
Alert the Nobel committee.
I spot a stolen base. Asia /= China.
China has a much poorer reputation than say….Taiwan.
“On the other side of the state, a woman from India that she has been trying to deport, Priya Saxena, was on stage at South Dakota Mines in Rapid City receiving her doctorate in chemical and biological engineering and a masters degree…
Saxena has been a target of Noem and her department for weeks. The department maintains she should have her student visa revoked because in 2021 she was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of failing to move over for flashing yellow lights.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14701131/Kristi-Noem-degree-Priya-Saxena-doctorate.html
That does seem a bit ridiculous.
climate denial bubble
Laugh if you want. One of these days they’ll be right.
“Qatar has offered Trump the $400 million super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet for him to use as Air Force One after infuriating and costly delays to an order he placed with Boeing for two new aircrafts during his first term in 2018.
Trump will reportedly keep the plane for his personal use after leaving the White House in a deal which would see ownership transferred to his presidential library foundation at the end of his term.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14701687/trump-qatar-plane-gift-maga-critics.html
How quickly did Qatar put this plane together?
“The offer from Qatar comes amid Trump’s frustrations with Boeing’s repeated delays and cost overruns in producing the next generation of Air Force One planes. Originally commissioned during Trump’s first term under a $3.9 billion contract, the new presidential aircraft are now billions over budget and reportedly won’t be ready until as late as 2035. This timeline likely means Trump wouldn’t fly on the new aircraft while he is still in office.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in February, the Department of Defense enlisted L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor based in Melbourne, Florida, to retrofit a former Qatari-owned Boeing 747 with the specialized communication and security systems required for presidential use. Sources that spoke to the WSJ suggested the aircraft could be ready as soon as this fall, with Trump requesting regular updates and personally touring the plane in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this year.”
Millions will die
Our favorite Democratic Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, told Grist this week, “Energy Star has saved American families and businesses more than half a trillion dollars in energy costs, By eliminating this program, [the president] will force Americans to buy appliances that cost more to run and waste more energy.” In addition to the energy savings, it is estimated that all those more efficient appliances have prevented more than 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere over the past 30 years.
If the government doesn’t do it… well, you know.
“By eliminating this program, [the president] will force Americans to buy appliances that cost more to run and waste more energy”
That’s backwards, keeping the program will force Americans to buy appliances that cost more.
“CleanTechnica readers, being generally well informed and keenly aware of what is going on in the outside world, will recognize this as just the latest in a long line of “the government can’t do anything right” policies espoused by so-called conservatives who are wedded to the idea that we should burn more fossil fuels, not less, and that the government is wasteful, slow moving, and infested with do-nothing employees who spend their whole day at the beach while sucking on the government teat.”
If the Energy Star program was a worthy program worth keeping they would not need to resort to mendacious arguments like this.
Luse goes on to say that a white paper from the Competitive Enterprise Institute on modernizing the EPA in March claimed that “green purchasing programs assume the federal government needs to meddle in the marketplace by providing its seal of approval on what it deems to be environmentally satisfactory products. If consumers demand certain information, then businesses will respond by disseminating this information to them.” If a labeling system is needed, “then private certification organizations should play such a role.”
We can’t let private certification organizations gain a toehold. Does no one remember the millions of consumers who died after trusting Underwriters Laboratories and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety?
“A man was mauled to death and eaten by his pet lion just days after buying the beast to keep in his back garden.
A resident of Najaf, southern Iraq, was horrifically attacked by the predator before it consumed most of his body on Thursday…
the predator launched a surprise attack on its trainer before ferociously mauling him to death and devouring him.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14702985/Man-mauled-death-EATEN-pet-lion-days-buying-beast-garden.html
How much of a surprise was it?
That pitbull I keep chained to a cinderblock in the back yard attacked me! Lions gonna lion…
Politico reported last week that the president planned to sign an executive order directing aides to pursue the “most favored nation” initiative for a “selection of drugs within the Medicare program.”
I’ve been poking around to find the EO. It’s still not posted, at this time, on either the Federal Register’s website or the White House’s website.
From other stories I found on the EO, this is a repeat of something Trump tried for Medicare only during his first term. Courts shot it down because the law at the time did not allow Medicare to do what Trump wanted. The Biden era Inflation Reduction Act changed that law, so Trump shouldn’t have a problem this time around.
I like how a lot of of the news coverage is talking as if it is prescription prices across the board.
The Biden era Inflation Reduction Act changed that law, so Trump shouldn’t have a problem this time around
+1 nationwide injunction
Curtis Yarvin
@curtis_yarvin
The point of Trump’s weirdos is Caligula’s point in appointing his horse to the Senate.
It’s not that a horse is a good Senator. It’s that the Senate is a joke.
If the DoD was defending us from fearsome foreign foes, Hegseth’s character would matter. But it’s a jobs program
https://x.com/curtis_yarvin/status/1921911685213790294
Succinct, cogent, and on topic: who hacked Yarvin’s account?
Joseph Goffman, who was the head of air pollution programs at the EPA during the prior administration, thinks the decision aligns with the Trump administration’s other actions — its regulatory rollbacks, its cuts in personnel, and its clawing back of clean air and water grants. “What I think we’re looking at here is an absolute distillation of the ideology of this administration, which is a thorough going hostility to anything that the government does that helps people. If you want to destroy the relationship between the public and government, you’re going to target the Energy Star program.”
CleanTechnica readers, being generally well informed and keenly aware of what is going on in the outside world, will recognize this as just the latest in a long line of “the government can’t do anything right” policies espoused by so-called conservatives who are wedded to the idea that we should burn more fossil fuels, not less, and that the government is wasteful, slow moving, and infested with do-nothing employees who spend their whole day at the beach while sucking on the government teat.
Sadly, through the auspices of Faux News, X, Meta, and a host of online sources, a majority of Americans have swallowed this load of tripe and so gladly vote for representatives whose primary mission is destroying the federal government. It is hard to imagine any program that is more innocuous than Energy Star. If it has incurred the rage of free market fundamentalists, the demise of a civil society is at hand. Nothing says “free market” like being able to force your ideas down the throats of those who disagree with you.
Mistrust of the government? It’s barbarism, it is.
“Faux News”
Good burn though, well it would be if this was 1998.
We are the smart ones!
I am so smart!
S-M-R-T!
I mean S-M-A-R-T!
“representatives whose primary mission is destroying the federal government”
LOLOLOLOL
“What I think we’re looking at here is an absolute distillation of the ideology of this administration, which is a thorough going hostility to anything that the government does that helps people. If you want to destroy the relationship between the public and government, you’re going to target the Energy Star program.”
This, of course, is evidenced by how popular the Energy Star program is. Hardly a day goes by where I don’t hear someone singing the praises of this program.
The country will never be the same if we don’t see a big star sticker on the side of a fridge, and then look right past that to the price tag.
“Whistleblowers say human trafficking hotline operator failed to report tips to law enforcement”
I wonder if the traffickers were Maryland dads.
when i realized pink shower mold was intentionally spread by the US government over all of san francisco in 1950 as a bioweapon experiment called operation sea-spray i became a bit frustrated that i have to pay for it to be cleaned and then i get taxed on that. some guy died too
https://x.com/nearcyan/status/1921688431106650411
The founders should have put something in the bill of rights against this sort of thing
” Rogan said he was “very interested in the idea of Jesus being a real person,” and compared it to other phenomena he has explored. “I wanted Bigfoot to be real, just like I want Jesus to be real,” he said.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/dHJ1bXAtb3
STEVE SMITH BE REAL, AND BY BE REAL…
If anyone cares, I have booked flights, a room and a rental car for Honey Harvest.
At GT’s recommendation, we are staying at the Good Ol’ Days Family Resort.
My wife and I will be doing this instead of our normal Anniversary trip in June.
Flying in on Friday and out on Monday, looking forward to meeting some of you in person.
We are arriving in Nisswa on Thursday and driving home on Monday.
There is a street festival of sorts in Nisswa on Saturday before HH on Sunday.
Will we have to bail MikeS and his brother Nodak_Matt from jail?
Yes, but not because of the festival.
There’s an open warrant on all Dakotans.
I won’t have enough leave to attend this year. 🙁
See you there!
“A McDonald’s restaurant in the progressive Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax County, Virginia has banned under 21-year-olds from indoor dining after “repeated incidents of student violence.” Adults must ring a doorbell to be let in by staff.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/adults-must-ring-doorbell-entry-after-d-c/
Yikes!
I hated riding the subway after school dismissal.
But is the bathroom clean?
“On April 4, Prevost reposted a video of a younger Pelosi arguing for tariffs on China, exposing the radical 180-degree flip-flop that Pelosi and her Democrat cronies have pulled to appease the globalist agenda.
The original post didn’t hold back, “These fing liberals crying about tariffs is just unreal. Do they not know that there is a thing called video? Just listen to what this drunk c has to say in the mid 90s long before her husband had Grindr dates.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/leftist-are-complete-meltdown-after-popes-brother-shared/
LOLOL
Did sacramental wine fall out of the Pope’s butt?
So apparently the parties just have to be opposite. Now that Trump has copied Bernie Sanders economics, apparently the Democrats need to be the free trade party now? I dunno.
Trump has been going on about tariffs and trade for 30 years now.