Republican News

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Initially, I intended to include Rainn Wilson’s zinger in my earlier post regarding the debate on CNN. However, this really does warrant a separate look at yet another defense of the mainstream media, and accusations that outsiders are responsible for its credibility collapse.

This time, the excuses come from MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle, who claims that the media’s low standing is the fault of … Elon Musk? Grasping at the Left’s latest bête noire, Ruhle claims that Musk’s “media machine” has manipulated people into mistrusting traditional media because Musk “want(s) you to go to X” to get information. Mistrust in the media is a conspiracy, Ruhle complains, and democracy is in danger!

“This is where I would push back,” says the star of The Office, and does so in a humorous and utterly cutting manner. Maybe the media has a Cleopatra Complex, Wilson concludes:

NEW: ‘The Office’ star Rainn Wilson claps back after MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle claims Elon Musk and Donald Trump are responsible for the public distrust of the mainstream media.

Wilson: “40% of Americans don’t trust mainstream media. Why is that? How did we get here?”

Ruhle:… pic.twitter.com/v7ohnXBzxl

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 22, 2025

Queen of Denial, indeed. 

If democracy is in danger, Ruhle should look first to MSNBC, which fed its viewers an almost unending stream of progressive propaganda disguised as news. Ruhle’s contention that the media exists to hold government accountable is a joke in any context that includes the Protection Racket Media, but especially with MSNBC. No other media outlet tried to push the line harder than MSNBC that Joe Biden was fully competent, Sharp As A Tack®, and in one embarrassing moment, that Biden was the “best version of himself” ever. That was just a few weeks before the June 27 debate that exposed the years-long cover-up of Biden’s senility, which MSNBC still won’t address.

In other words, MSNBC took part in attempting to subvert democracy by covering up the fact that Biden could not possibly have been competent enough to run for a second term, let alone complete the term he was currently serving. Biden was being propped up for another four years as a puppet for someone or someones to exercise power And that is a direct assault on American democracy, one that lasted at least since the Easter Bunny ordered a confused and wandering Biden off the rope line in April 2022, and according to some reports, even before Biden took office at all. 

Not one mainstream media organization bothered to follow up on this at that time, especially not NSNBC or Ruhle. They didn’t follow up on all sorts of other indicators either, even though they might have found a scoop had they bothered to ask. Andrew Stiles has perused the burgeoning Now It Can Be Told literary genre to discover that Democrats knew full well that Biden had serious cognition failures as early as 2021:

From the moment Biden shuffled on stage at the CNN debate and bragged about beating Medicare in June 2024, there has been a steady stream of revelations about all the Democrats who were (privately) concerned or even shocked by the extent of Biden’s cognitive decline since taking office in 2021. They didn’t say anything at the time, obviously, because they didn’t want to anger the president—a notoriously vindictive narcissist—and they didn’t want to help Donald Trump by validating his attacks on Biden’s fitness for office. Two recently published books—Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, and Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History by Chris Whipple—shed even more light on the Democratic Party’s abject failure to stop Biden from running for reelection, even though many believed he was too old and cognitively impaired to serve another four years.

Now it can all be told. Here are 30 examples, based on reporting that emerged suddenly (and conveniently) after the disastrous debate had removed all doubt regarding Biden’s decline, of powerful Democrats expressing their (private) concern about the president’s age and health.

Had the mainstream media actually desired to hold the government accountable, as Ruhle claims, they would have pressed for answers at least by that April 2022 Easter event. They were not interested in holding a Democrat-run government accountable, however; they were only interested in propping Biden up to get their ideological agenda moved forward. As Huhgh Hewitt wrote this morning, they acted like a Praetorian guard rather than a Fourth Estate:

Many, many people knew what they saw and said it out loud, only to have the Beltway’s Praetorian Guard embedded in both legacy media and throughout the Administrative State rally around the infirm president in order to preserve their power and their “access.” The “Constitutional… https://t.co/EQqoOw7WNn

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) April 23, 2025

The “Constitutional crisis” the same gang loves to pretend to worry about doesn’t exist now but if it has ever existed since the Civil War —a crisis for which the Constitution exists to prevent or to resolve— it is behind us.

And they missed it, or they deliberately covered it up. There is no third option. And given the uncritical manner and enthusiasm in which the media — and especially MSNBC — regurgitated the Sharp As A Tack!® and “cheap fakes” narratives, it’s pretty clearly the latter. 

That’s not on Elon Musk. It’s not on CNN’s right-wing “freaks” either. It’s on the Protection Racket Media, whose utter corruption and propaganda have demolished their credibility — and what little they have left is being destroyed by their Cleopatra Complex. 

Ruhle is hardly the only media figure with a Cleopatra Complex. There is no indication that the Protection Racket Media has changed its spots, or even acknowledged their corruption and failure. They will continue to shift blame to everyone else — Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the independent platforms that call out their corruption and failure. 

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Everything is easy, as long as you don’t have to consider reality. 

A while back, I wrote about Biden’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Jared Bernstein, who literally couldn’t explain what money is, where it comes from, or why the federal government didn’t just print as much as it wants and not borrow any. 

He had no idea and said so on camera. It was both glorious and frightening. 

Barbara Lee, who retired from Congress as a very powerful Congresswoman, ran and lost in the race to replace Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so she has settled herself in as the Mayor-elect of Oakland, California. 

It’s appropriate enough. Oakland is what Donald Trump would call a “s**thole,” and deserves yet another Mayor who is full of it. 

Why not $100? 🤔 https://t.co/QaaZAU8TIM

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 22, 2025

Like Bernstein, Lee understands economics the way I understand Zoroastrianism–not at all. I would not call myself an economic genius by any means, but I understand the basics, and one of the most basic things is that money doesn’t grow on trees. It is, in fact, made out of Levi’s Jeans denim scraps. But that isn’t important right now. 

What is important is that money is an abstraction, and it is abstracted from value. Ultimately, the value of money is tied to the goods and services that can be purchased with it, so if you expand the money supply without expanding the goods and services, the only thing that changes is the dollar’s value. Nobody gets any richer unless more actual wealth is created. 

That’s why increases in the minimum wage are a fool’s solution to a perennial problem: some people make more money than others, and people whose labor or contribution is low on the value scale–say, fry cooks whose sole skill is being surly while making fries–will not make sufficient money to satisfy their desires. 

People in Oakland are not poor because they aren’t paid enough. They are poor because they produce little of value compared to those around them in one of the wealthiest places in the world–San Francisco and the Silicon Valley region. When you are competing with Googlers for resources, being a minimum wage worker is a real problem. You are competing for limited resources with people who can outbid you by a wide margin. 

That doesn’t make you a bad person–although there are LOTS of bad people in Oakland, which truly IS a s**thole–it just means that you live in the wrong place and have the wrong skills and likely temperament to thrive there. Economically speaking, Oakland’s land would be put to better use providing housing for people who are more productive, but economics is not the only factor in this world, nor should it be. 

Poor people have to live somewhere, and Oakland is where poor people live in the Bay Area. But their poverty will not be relieved by magic bullets like an increase in the minimum wage. If the wage goes to $50/hour, those people will become unemployed tomorrow, and businesses will bail immediately. 

Now they will be even poorer with no place to shop. I suppose they could take the BART–an aging, decrepit, and ever-less-reliable subway that is failing–to somewhere else less insane, but they will have little money in a region where a LOT of money is necessary to get by. I’m not sure that Whole Foods or some Co-Op will be thrilled to see them either. 

What Oakland needs is much better governance, schools, and a lot more fathers in the families. Increasing wages without vastly increasing the value that minimum wage workers bring to the table is a recipe for disaster. 

Unfortunately, the fact that Barbara Lee succeeds another truly awful mayor shows that Oakland is toast. 

Which is, I suppose, as it ever was. 

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Today in England is traditionally celebrated as St. George’s Day.

I say ‘traditionally,’ because the Church of England has seen fit to move the feast day back to the 28th of April so as not to interfere with any of the Easter week celebrations.

…According to church rules, no saint’s day can be observed during Holy Week or Easter Week.

A note from the Church of England explains:
“When St George’s Day or St Mark’s Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. If both fall in this period, St George’s Day is transferred to the Monday and St Mark’s Day to the Tuesday.”

For a fellow born in what is now modern-day Turkey in the Third Century AD, died a horrific death as a Christian martyr in what is now modern day Israel, never set foot in England nor was he a knight (historical consensus is a Roman army officer), and there are serious questions about the dragon, well…St George has still had an outsized impact on British history and their national character in what I would say is all the best ways.

St George was martyred in the early part of the 4th century for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods and canonized in 494 AD by Pope Gelasius. His April 23rd feast day was celebrated for hundreds of years, and it became especially important to the English after Henry V’s triumph at Agincourt in 1415.

If you’ll remember, Shakespeare has Harry invoking St George at the siege of Harfleur.

‘…And upon this charge cry ‘GOD, FOR HARRY, ENGLAND AND ST GEORGE!’…’

The English believe their patron saint has spread his protection over their country and their troops for centuries.

…Five hundred years later – during the First World War – a ghostly apparition of St George is said to have aided British troops during their retreat from Mons, and the naval commander of the Zeebrugge Raid cited the saint as inspiration.

In 1348, Edward III chose St George as the patron saint for his Royal Order of the Garter and used his cross as part of his royal standard. But St George’s cross – the red cross on a white background – wasn’t adopted as an English symbol until the reign of Henry VIII. It became the only saint’s flag permitted in public during the English Reformation and was incorporated into the Union Jack in 1606.

St George, whatever his origins in the mists of history, is as English as mushy peas.

So, as you might imagine, he’s a bit of an embarrassment to Labour unless they can use him to virtue signal ‘patriotism’ and ‘English pride’ when no one believes them for a split second.

And in fact, the government has many English citizens frightened off from celebrating their country’s patron saint for fear of being seen as ‘too’ English.

I cannot imagine.

‘People are scared!’ England’s most English town admits why ‘embarrassed’ locals won’t celebrate St George’s Day

On the banks of the River Thames in the heart of Essex, lies a beleaguered bastion of English patriotism.

Canvey Island, a point of refuge for thousands of holidaymaking-turned-relocating Londoners, retained its crown as England’s most English town in the 2021 Census.

…However, scratch beneath the surface and there is not much going on behind the 14-mile sea wall to mark St George’s Day.

…“Englishness is really important,” pensioner Terry White told GB News. “I’d do something for St George’s Day but people are too scared.”

White, originally from Poplar on the London Docklands, believes other countries across the Anglosphere remain proud of their national identity but fears culture-cancelling efforts to “erase” English history deter people from showing support.

…“I’m very proud to be English and I’ll be spending St George’s Day with my daughter in Grays,” the tweed-clad pensioner [John Sutton] revealed. “But it’s such a shame we don’t do more. I just think people are embarrassed.”

‘Embarrassed’ to celebrate your country – gobsmacking.

I can only imagine they’ve been beaten back by being called ‘bigots’ for questioning the foreign invasion and constantly harangued by anti-national pride sentiments like those expressed on one show, which caused an uproar.

Watch the moment a tense row kicks off on GB News as broadcaster Samuel Sweek argues against the notion of national pride on St. George’s Day.

…Speaking on GB News, Sweek said national pride is not a concept he believes in.

“St George’s Day doesn’t float my boat”, he said. “There’s much to be taken from our country and people from England have done remarkable things over the years.

…The commentator responded: “I think if we had a country I could aspire to be proud of – a country that stands up for the marginalised, a country which political and media class punches downwards, maybe I could be proud.

“I don’t believe in the concept of national pride. It’s luck of the draw. It’s a lottery.”

That’s exactly the kind of Labour voter the government loves. If you destroy a sense of national pride – or at least beat any desire to express it in public into hiding – you have effectively stripped your populace of any sense of self.

They are rudderless and faceless.

That’s why the portraits of storied and legendary English heroes are no longer on display at Whitehall, Westminster, or 10 Downing Street. That’s why English history is being removed from walls and public squares.

And exactly why Prime Minister Keir Starmer could shamelessly do what he did with this year’s St George’s Day – he held a party to tout his newfound ‘patriotism.’

Sir Keir Starmer insisted Labour was ‘the patriotic party’ today as he used St George’s Day to vow to ‘fight for our flag and what it represents’.

The Prime Minister, who faces a major electoral test next week at the hands of Nigel Farage‘s Reform, used a celebrity reception at No10 to warn of the ‘never-ending fight for our flag and what it represents’.

….Speaking ahead of the event the PM set out Labour’s patriotic credentials, citing the postwar rebuilding of the country and creation of Nato under Clement Attlee.

Branding Reform ‘a bunch of moaners without any answers’ he told the Mirror: ‘I’m really proud that Labour’s the patriotic party.

‘I think it’s really important that we are proud of that history and assert it on St George’s Day, as we will do. There is so much to celebrate about our country, and I’m really proud to be able to do that.’

Oh? I’m going to have to repeat that quote.

Sir Keir Starmer – patriot and sudden, ardent defender of ‘the flag’?

the ‘never-ending fight for our flag and what it represents’.

I only say ‘sudden’ because this is also Keir Starmer. Only versus his fellow English citizens waving ‘the flag.’

A dad, who didn’t take part in any violence, but did wave England’s flag, is in prison for two years, his children go without their father.
Huw Edwards walks free for what I’m sure most of us would view as far worse a crime.
And Labour dare tell us two tier justice doesn’t exist? pic.twitter.com/iz8J25Mmkf

— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) September 17, 2024

WHY DIS FLAG NOT OKAY?

🇬🇧 In once Great Britain you can now be arrested for waving the Countries Union Jack Flag on the streets of England. pic.twitter.com/c1sXTe1mOh

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) March 5, 2025

OR DIS FACEBOOK FLAG?

The Englishman posted British flag on Facebook and British police moved to arrest him for causing “a serious crime of a threatening nature which caused anxiety to anyone”.pic.twitter.com/e3s2rdfi0d

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 28, 2024

Labour has never been terribly big on patriotism or St George. I found a 2008 Bingley post on our old blog about how the Labour Party had just been pinged for boasting, as Starmer did today, of their oodles of English patriotism whilst expending no actual effort at all. Smoke and mirrors.

They did, however, hold true to Labour form in claiming that St George celebrants were ‘bigots’ much as Starmer does now with British flagwavers who aren’t Labour fans.

£230: That’s how much Department for Culture spent promoting St George’s Day in FIVE years

They were happy to fly the flag of St George on the patron saint’s day.
But it seems ministers aren’t quite so keen to put their money where their mouths are.

For, in the past five years, Labour has spent just £230 promoting St George’s Day.

In 2008 they spent £116. In 2007, £114… and in the previous three years, nothing was spent at all.

This April, Downing Street proudly raised the flag, and Mr Brown’s spokesman said: ‘The prime minister’s view is that of course we should celebrate our Britishness, but celebrating our Britishness does not mean we cannot also celebrate our Englishness, Scottishness, Welshness or Northern Irishness.’

Justice Secretary Jack Straw urged the English to reclaim the day from ‘bigots’.

‘Anyone proud to be English is equally proud of St George and what, down the ages, his myth and his flag have come to represent for this nation within the United Kingdom,’ he wrote in the Daily Mail.

I found another quote from 2008, which could be dropped into today’s headlines and the turgid, fetid state of Starmer’s England. 

…Outside the realm of sport, English patriotism and the St. George flag long were shunned by liberal-minded Britons, regarded as the preserve of right-wing “Little Englanders” steeped in nostalgia and a mistrust of foreigners. Politicians promoted the notion of Britishness — an amalgamated identity open to native and foreign-born citizens, and to English, Welsh and Scottish alike.

‘Steeped in nostalgia and a mistrust of foreigners.’

My gosh – such awful people. What a shame they didn’t listen to, vice deride them

Nothing changes with progressives, ever.

Saying the heck with them, GB News has found great groups of folks celebrating across England today.

It’s the ‘Proud to Be English’ fun it should be.

No red-cheeked embarrassment required.

Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.

Happy #StGeorgesDay 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/Q4FA9oQIal

— Cameron (@Cameron_Surname) April 23, 2025

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Is this a blink? Or is it a nudge?

Since Liberation Day, the White House has spent considerable effort recalibrating its tariff rates and applications as the markets responded — largely and significantly negatively. Donald Trump has hit China particularly hard, and after the first few days of the tariff rollout, appeared to make China his primary target for tariffs. Talks with other trading partners immediately opened up and reportedly focused on using tariffs as part of a strategy to isolate Beijing.

Today, however, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is considering de-escalation reductions with China, reportedly to boost the prospects for trade talks:

The Trump administration is considering slashing its steep tariffs on Chinese imports—in some cases by more than half—in a bid to de-escalate tensions with Beijing that have roiled global trade and investment, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Trump hasn’t made a final determination, the people said, adding that the discussions remain fluid and several options are on the table.

One senior White House official said the China tariffs were likely to come down to between roughly 50% and 65%. The administration is also considering a tiered approach similar to the one proposed by the House committee on China late last year: 35% levies for items the U.S. deems not a threat to national security, and at least 100% for items deemed as strategic to America’s interest, some of the people said. The bill proposed phasing in those levies over five years.

Yesterday, Trump did tell reporters that the current 145% tariff rate was “very high,” and would not be as high once talks conclude:

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, the president also said 145% tariffs on China are “very high.”

“It won’t be that high,” Trump said. “It will come down substantially. But it won’t be zero. It used to be zero.”

That still seemed to be predicated on trade talks with that rate in place. Now it seems that Trump will back down on the rates first. Why? Earlier today, China signaled that it would engage with Trump on trade, but not under “continued threats from the White House,” as the WSJ puts it. If that’s the case, then this leak might be a strategic signal to Xi Jinping that we can make a gesture to allow him to save face before entering into talks.

Scott Bessent sent another, more direct signal:

“There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” between the U.S. and China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The U.S. needs to rebalance to more manufacturing and exports and away from consumption while China needs to rebalance in just the opposite direction, he told the Institute for International Finance. “Let’s do it together,” he said. “This is an incredible opportunity.”

That’s all well and good, but then that complicates the idea that this has been a grand strategy to isolate China. That will impact the talks with our other trading partners, at least by draining some of the leverage out of the negotiations. This looks more like an effort to shore up the markets and support from key constituencies. It seems to be working so far this morning:

Investors are breathing a sigh of relief—and putting the “Sell America” trade on pause.

A rally in U.S. stocks continued for a second day, after the Trump administration addressed two of the market’s biggest concerns by softening its tone on both China and the Federal Reserve.

Still, that doesn’t negate the impression that the White House seems to be making this up on the fly rather than pursuing a coherent strategy that will reconstruct free trade into truly fair trade. In one indicator that leverage may be waning, the EU has now announced that it would not negotiate its VAT policies that disfavor American exports:

The European Union won’t negotiate changes to its value-added taxes or agricultural subsidies as part of trade discussions with the U.S., the bloc’s economy commissioner said early Wednesday.

“We do not see any possibility to move away from our value-added tax,” the EU’s Valdis Dombrovskis told The Wall Street Journal. He said he had communicated that to his counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, before Trump’s plans for reciprocal tariffs were unveiled.

There is still plenty of opportunity for successes, but the White House has to decide what it’s actually trying to do with its tariff policies — and stick to the plan. 

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Who could have guessed that Klaus Schwab was a grifter? Not me. 

I tend to think of him as more of a Bond villain, but unlike the old days when Bond villains could freely skim off the top of their evil organizations, the World Economic Forum’s version of global domination requires the proper paperwork before one splurges from the corporate till. 

Exclusive: The World Economic Forum’s founder quit after its board opened a probe into new allegations of financial and ethical misconduct https://t.co/kB37ukelZs

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 22, 2025

Blowfelt was not into technocracy, but today’s evil organizations want the skimming to be well documented and easily defended before the IRS. Schwab apparently didn’t obey the rules, so he is out as the face of the World Economic Forum. 

I still believe that Klaus Schwab and the person who dresses Klaus Schwab both should be arrested for crimes against humanity. pic.twitter.com/2G7EbjEcBk

— Axiomatic Enemy of the State (@DeTocqueville14) April 21, 2025

Think of this turn of events as the modern-day Al Capone-style takedown. Sure, Schwab has led the charge to ruin billions of people’s lives for fun and profit, but his real crime was charging his massages on the corporate credit card. 

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

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

It included allegations that Klaus Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and used Forum funds to pay for private, in-room massages at hotels. It also alleged that his wife Hilde, a former Forum employee, scheduled “token” Forum-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization’s expense. 

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

It’s penny-ante stuff, really, and to be honest, I doubt that this investigation is really about defending the corporate till from being raided. Schwab is 87, and in recent years, the rise of his public profile, including his Bond-villain wardrobe and creepy German accent, have seemingly made him irresistible to the glitterati, but repulsive to the masses who see the WEF as the central nervous system of globalism. 

Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, is now under investigation by the very institution he helped build.

A whistleblower from inside the Forum has come forward with explosive allegations of financial and ethical misconduct involving Schwab and his wife.

Among… pic.twitter.com/TVoj7tfeLx

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) April 22, 2025

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

“We feel compelled to share a comprehensive account of systemic governance failures and abuses of power that have taken place over many years under the unchecked authority of Klaus Schwab,” states the letter, which said it was from current and former Forum employees.

The organizer of the annual Davos conference has been shaking up its leadership in recent weeks in response to a previous board probe into its workplace culture. In a recent memo, Børge Brende, the Forum’s CEO, said the Forum would take steps to address leadership issues identified by the prior probe and that the investigation didn’t substantiate the allegations against its founder.

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

The allegations are no doubt true–but also ridiculous. Far be it from me to defend Schwab in any way, but the whole point of the globalist agenda is to create a world where the technocratic elite gets to live the high life at the expense of everybody else. Does anybody seriously believe that the Forum’s board gives a whit about massages or luxury vacations? The World Economic Forum is where the wealthy and powerful come together to discuss the importance of making people eat insects to save Gaia, having flown to the meetings on private jets. 

Klaus Schwab was/is a carnival barker, clever only at acting the part of a scary conspirator but mostly just observing trends and taking credit for them to hype his high-priced racket. That anyone of substance ever took it seriously is quite the commentary.

— Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreyatucker) April 22, 2025

I’m not sure what motivated the coup, but fear not! Another Bond Villain is replacing Schwab. Stay tuned for a quick profile of him later today. 

He definitely owns sharks with lasers on their heads.

— Adam B. Coleman, Proud Father & Imperfect Man (@wrong_speak) April 22, 2025

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Public trust in media has never been lower. Once-important newspapers have hemorrhaged subscribers and readers. Ratings for cable-TV outlets like CNN and MSNBC have cratered. And guess who’s fault it is — at least according to CNN’s assorted talking heads?

Yours. And mine too, it seems … for pointing out just how badly they do their jobs. 

How low can they go? Scott Jennings provides this clip from last night’s panel discussion, in which Jeff Jarvis refers to new media and its audiences as “freaks,” to which the rest of the panel save Jennings at least tacitly agrees. No, I am not kidding:

Posting longer clip than usual – big discussion on state of the media last night. Trust is so low but there’s a way to fix it: MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT. And I strongly defend new media sources against attacks they are “freaks.” Worth the watch from @cnn 10p last night. pic.twitter.com/Un2lXdEZ5t

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) April 23, 2025

If you ever wondered what the media elites truly think of its audience, you now have your answer. 

Interestingly, this discussion took place a few hours after Axios reported that the “fact check” sub-industry of the Protection Racket Media has fallen on hard times. Why? No one trusts the media to report actual facts, let alone check them without bias:

America’s obsession with countering mis- and disinformation has withered as society grows skeptical of institutions once trusted with facts.

Why it matters: Professional fact-checking went mainstream during the first Trump administration, but it’s since become politicized.

• Americans are less enthusiastic about policing information today than they were two years ago, and the trend is bipartisan, per Pew Research Center.

State of play: Institutions once seen as critical to providing facts about history and current events, such as public schools and news media, are experiencing record-low trust levels, in addition to financial challenges.

 In the first place, the “fact-check” industry “went mainstream” well before Trump took office. Mainstream media generally employed it against conservative dissent to Barack Obama, but the fact-checkers went after Obama enough to maintain some semblance of credibility. PolitiFact made Obama’s claim that “no one would lose their insurance” their Lie of the Year after ObamaCare rolled out in 2013, for instance. When Trump made his run for office in 2016 and then won, however, the fact-check sub-industry of the media made Trump their primary focus — and that continued even after serial fabulist Joe Biden took office. 

Actually, the media had multiple targets during that time. Most of them deployed fact-checkers to shut down debate and dissent over the pandemic, acting in concert with the Biden administration to suppress “misinformation.” Media consumers were fed a constant stream of effluvium from the media on the racism of suggesting the virus came from a Chinese lab, the dangers of being outside without a mask, the dire threat of having more than ten people in a church, and how the unvaccinated presented a dire threat to the populace. The media, if not the fact-checkers, made Anthony Fauci into a demigod-hero beyond questioning or contradiction. They made themselves into a part of the Biden administration’s Big Brother Social Media Censorship Complex, in large part to kill off the independent platforms that challenged their business model. 

And during that same period, the media insisted on regurgitating the claims that a senile and physically doddering president was “Sharp As A Tack!®” They gleefully informed us that Biden Was Running Rings Around Aides Half His Age while barely able to get off a stage under his own steam, and while the Easter Bunny ordered him off a rope line in April 2022. In the final weeks of the massive cover-up of Joe Biden’s senility, the mainstream media and its fact-checkers began lecturing us to beware of “cheap fake” videos showing Biden’s infirmity and flat-out incompetence, which was the elite’s version of “Who you gonna believe, us or your lyin’ eyes?”

Who exactly are the freaks in this scenario? The Protection Racket Media figures who refuse to address their failures and corruption at all, or the audiences who turn to other independent platforms to get their information? Why would anyone trust outlets that played along with the attempt to push a senile old man into another four-year presidential term ‘Because Trump’ with checking facts, let alone reporting the news honestly?

Fact-checking is dying because the media is dying. The media is dying because they are dishonest and corrupt, and all of the Now It Can Be Told books that reporters want to publish now about the Biden cover-up won’t fix it. I’m not even sure that Jennings’ prescription will cure the media patient at this point, but it would at least be a good start. 

This exemplifies why it is so important to support independent platforms. Many didn’t survive the assault on their business models that the Biden administration choreographed through the State Department and HHS with the assistance of the Protection Racket Media. Even with the GEC and its descendants finally demolished, the elites still will use every opportunity to destroy the “freaks” that hold them accountable.

Join our VIP Membership program and be part of the fight! Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!

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Nothing says “FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY” quite like flying a private jet to rally the Brownshirts with an aging millionaire. 

AOC sure knows how to fight “The Man!”

HEIGHT OF IRONY: @BernieSanders and @AOC take $15,000 an hour private jet to ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rallies. pic.twitter.com/Ouadcr1JHz

— Corbin Williams (@corbinwilliams) April 22, 2025

No doubt you are aware that AOC is bucking to become Bernie Sanders’–that aging millionaire who has spent his life ranting about socialism while enjoying a nice life on the taxpayers’ dime–protege and successor. She is looking to inherit the Bernie! movement, which has twice been denied the Democratic Party’s nomination through questionable political maneuvering designed to deny party activists their choice for candidate. 

Poor Bernie. The Obama/Clinton clique screwed him, and then the brain-dead Bidens, but he soldiers on. And with good reason. Just as the Republican Party has taken a populist turn, the Democratic Party base has as well, longing for a socialist to lead them to the promised land. Bernie is now, if anything, just a tich to the right of the Democratic Party base. 

AOC hits the right note and is a worthy successor. While Bernie has said politically incorrect things about illegal immigration, for instance, AOC is the new, improved model for the NetZero generation of lefties. Bernie’s version of Marxism-lite was of the shared prosperity type, while the AOC version would be the shared misery and decline variety of Marxism. Bernie would welcome union jobs; AOC thinks jobs are for illegals. 

AOC and Bernie share most of their values, and apparently a love for private air travel on Earth Day. AOC, like millionaire Bernie Sanders, thinks that sacrifice is for the little people. And since they need to rally the little people around the country to embrace that sacrifice, no reason not to do so in style and comfort. 

AOC wears a “Tax The Rich” Dress to the Met Gala.

The hypocrisy is astounding. pic.twitter.com/aN0If1PGnR

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) September 14, 2021

AOC looked stunning in her designer “Tax the Rich” designer dress at the $35,000-a-ticket Met Gala, and I am quite serious about that. I have a thing for AOC and want to date her. Seriously. I do. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have the means to keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed, so my love will remain unrequited. 

The left is filled with such hypocrisies. The Extinction Rebellion and all the other anti-capitalist nutters are showered with money from billionaires, and George Soros and company fund the anti-oligarchy movement. 

I would say it is a strange world, and it is, but to be honest, there is nothing strange about the alliance of AOC and Bernie, nor of their enjoying the high life as they rail against others who do. The Democratic Party is filled with grifters who pretend to abhor the wealthy while status-climbing their way up into their ranks. Nancy Pelosi, for instance, must have one hell of a broker, but rather than giving out stock tips to the people she claims to care for, she racks up her millions while talking about taxing the rich and giving to the poor. 

There is an irony there, too. As these people cosplay Robin Hood, they actually play the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood didn’t steal from the rich and give to the poor. It was the taxman he was robbing, and returning the stolen money to the people he stole it from. 

The modern-day Robin Hood is the Republicans who want to lower taxes. It tells you something about how good the propaganda is that the left has inverted the moral of that story. Robin Hood was the small government guy. 

AOC and Bernie living the high life as they pretend they hate the people who fund it for them is totally on brand. Their goal is to steal from the poor, give to the rich, and skim a bit off the top so they can enjoy the high life themselves. 

This post was originally published on this site

Closing the tabs …

President Trump said he is not planning to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell—and he signaled that tariffs on China could be lowered.

“I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates … but, no, I have no intention to fire him,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Ed: I never thought he’d fire Powell. The comment about his termination “not coming fast enough” pretty obviously referred to the end of his term. If Trump meant that as anything else, he just would have fired him. This is yet another silly panic set off by somewhat careless remarks. 

===

WHOO BOY: In an order filed last night, Judge James Hendrix–the judge in Texas presiding over latest Alien Enemies Act case which prompted unprecedented intervention by SCOTUS–accused ACLU atty of violating federal code of conduct rules by calling his chambers AFTER Hendrix… pic.twitter.com/0kYMJbsPjc

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 22, 2025

Ed: I wonder (as does Kelly) how much ex parte communications took place with Judge Boasberg. Hmmmm.

===

During more than two and a half hours of argument on Tuesday, several justices read aloud from the text of the disputed storybooks, some of which referred to drag queens and same-sex marriage. Conservative justices repeatedly pressed the lawyer for the Maryland school system on why it could not easily accommodate the religious parents and allow their children to opt out of objectionable curriculum.

“What’s the big deal about allowing them to opt out?” asked Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“I’m not understanding why it’s not feasible,” added Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who said he was “mystified” by the school board’s actions in the Maryland county where he grew up and still lives.

Ed: It’s entirely absurd that Maryland refuses to allow parents to opt out of this indoctrination efforts. It seems as though the Supreme Court agrees too, although one should take care not to assume too much from the questions during oral argument. But even the WaPo seems to think that Maryland didn’t have good answers to these questions. 

===

The White House backed the firing of three Pentagon officials amid leaks against Hegseth.

“We are not going to tolerate individuals who leak to the mainstream media,” Leavitt said after our @DashaBurns pressed on the firings.

Watch the exchange👇 pic.twitter.com/7yuwoD1b6h

— POLITICO (@politico) April 22, 2025

Ed: Pour encourager les autres.

===

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program will move Wednesday to what is known as the “expert level” — a sign analysts say shows that the talks are moving forward rapidly.

However, experts not involved in the talks who spoke with The Associated Press warn that this doesn’t necessarily signal a deal is imminent. Instead, it means that the talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff haven’t broken down at what is likely the top-level trade — Tehran limiting its atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Ed: I suppose this is good news, because as Winston Churchill once observed, jaw-jaw is better than war-war. But I worry that we may rush into a deal for a deal’s sake, just as Barack Obama did in 2015. Any deal would require Iran to not just end its pursuit of nuclear technology related in any way to weapons, but also to scale back its ballistic missile programs too. 

===

As the liberal Intelligencia cheers Harvard for fighting Trump, I remind the @cnn panel what this is about – these universities absolutely allowed Jewish kids to be terrorized on campus. The president is standing against ugly anti-semitism & for Western Civilization. pic.twitter.com/dcUovsIUlj

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) April 22, 2025

===

Michigan is set to face a competitive primary and fierce race for the battleground state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2026.

Three major Democrats have already entered the contest, while Republicans eye flipping the seat, which will be vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.

The battleground state had mixed results for both parties in 2024, with President Donald Trump snagging a win in the presidential race and then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, prevailing in the Senate race. Democrats hope to keep the open seat in their hands, while Republicans hope to flip it and add to their majority in the Senate.

Ed: This is a real opportunity for Republicans, but bear in mind that the GOP hasn’t had the same kind of support in Michigan that Trump mustered for himself. Dave McCormick won the Senate seat in Pennsylvania over incumbent Bob Casey, but the GOP lost Senate seats in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada despite Trump’s wins in each state last November. It will take more than MAGA to flip these seats — maybe not MUCH more, but something extra. 

===

Who does Randi Weingarten think she is? pic.twitter.com/k5AG6wVG0n

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 22, 2025

Ed: WTH …?

===

America’s obsession with countering mis- and disinformation has withered as society grows skeptical of institutions once trusted with facts. …

Even Democrats, who have for years pushed tech companies to take action against falsehoods, have begun to lose their truth-seeking appetite amid broader political battles.

Ed: That’s because the “experts” keep lying to them, and keep attempting to suppress debate through tendentious and mainly partisan “fact checking.” It’s an industry that deserves to die.

===

Ed: And for the final Final Word, here’s Alan Dershowitz dismantling Larry David — remarkably gently — as a Holocaust denier. He has a couple of words for the New York Times for publishing David’s insane column, too. 

===

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Elon Musk is clearly proud of his time at DOGE. He posted this yesterday.

🎯 https://t.co/bcMZLov2La

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2025

But he’s also facing some real backlash from the left, some of it violent, over his position with DOGE. That pushback is starting to impact the bottom line for Tesla. Today, after the market closed, Tesla held an earnings call to announce sales were down about 9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Tesla’s overall revenue – including automotive, energy generation and storage, and services and other revenue – came in at $19.3 billion for the first quarter, decreasing 9% compared to last year’s first quarter.

According to the company, fewer vehicle deliveries “in part due to the Model Y update across all four vehicle factories” contributed to the drop in its total revenue as well as “reduced vehicle average selling price, due to mix and sales incentives” and other factors.

The 9% decline was company wide, but the decline for cars was steeper.

The electric vehicle maker, run by CEO Elon Musk, generated $13.97 billion in automotive revenue in the first three months of 2025, marking a drop of nearly 20% from the same quarter last year, according to its earnings release.

So with Tesla needing some additional attention, Musk announced that he was going to significantly reduce the time he spends on DOGE starting next month. He made clear this did not mean he was walking away from it and said he still planned to put a day or more per week into that effort. But more of his time will now be spent on Tesla.

“I think I’ll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do, and as long as it is useful. But starting next month, I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla,” Musk said in opening remarks at an audiocast Q&A after the March quarter numbers…

He said he thinks much of the heavy lifting at DOGE is done, allowing “my time allocation …  to drop significantly.” He said he will continue to be involved in DOGE likely for “the remainder of the President’s term, just make sure that the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back.”

He reassured Tesla shareholders, who have knocked the stock lower this year, that despite the weak quarter the company has “been through many near death experiences … and this is not one of those times … not even close.”

The company posted this statement on X highlighting some of the positive news from this quarter.

Q1 2025 Shareholder Update → https://t.co/sXBSeLibSL

Highlights
– Changed over production lines of the world’s best-selling vehicle across 4 factories simultaneously – an industry first

– It’s also outpacing all past ramps (LFG)

– Model 3, Y & Cybertruck now drive… pic.twitter.com/xqO95tSHyd

— Tesla (@Tesla) April 22, 2025

Musk has said for some time that his tenure as a special government employee would be limited. Eventually, he was always going to return to his many companies and all of their various efforts. So I don’t think this is really a change of plans but the timing also isn’t entirely coincidental. The left has done enough damage to his leading company that he needs to return to it and build it up again. 

Maybe you’ve noticed that he hasn’t been in the news as much in the last couple weeks as he was last month, when it seemed like he was the top story every day. The NY Times published a review of polling on DOGE and Musk today. It sums up the results of the left’s efforts to demonize Musk over the past couple months.

Views of Mr. Musk have taken a hit, as well. Over the last four years, he has gone from having a mostly positive approval rating among the voters who had heard of him to a deeply negative one.

Mr. Musk’s drop in popularity has come almost entirely from Democrats and independent voters, while his ratings have improved among Republicans.

Along with that came an intentional effort to damage Tesla as a way to punish Musk. We’ve all seen the nutjobs setting dealerships on fire and vandalizing stranger’s cars. So, mission accomplished I guess. As of now I think only one elected Democrat has explicitly denounced this behavior but quite a few of the perpetrators have been caught and will be spending some time in prison.

Here’s audio of Musk’s statements about DOGE and his plan to take a step back toward Tesla.

BREAKING: Musk says he’ll be cutting down time at DOGE starting in May to dedicate more time to Tesla but will spend a couple of days at DOGE a week for Trump’s entire presidency.

“The large amount of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place… is mostly done.”

“Starting… pic.twitter.com/S6cy9kUB5m

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 22, 2025

This post was originally published on this site

I had to.

First up in our round-up is the hydrogen Green dream.

It’s not going so well for some of its former firm adherents – they’re throwing in most of the proverbial towel.

For years, Airbus held a front-row seat in the theater of climate virtue signaling. With grand fanfare and a hefty €1.5 billion injection from French taxpayers during COVID-era bailouts, the European aerospace titan promised a hydrogen-powered, zero-emission aircraft by 2035. The project was christened as nothing less than “historic” by Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. Now, like so many green-energy pipe dreams, that fantasy is unraveling fast.

According to The Wall Street Journal article by Benjamin Katz, Airbus is retreating from its hydrogen ambitions—cutting the project’s budget by 25%, reallocating staff, and initiating a new “development loop” after discovering, shockingly, that the laws of physics still apply to aviation .

Don’t you hate it when that happens? I know I do.

Saving the world, one private jet flight at a time.

Bernie Sander and AOC get off their private jet on Earth Day as they “fight the oligarchy.

Hypocrites!! pic.twitter.com/Vo4YTYpXP4

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 22, 2025

And why does this not seem like a coincidence, the more you know about the climate cultists and their global puppet masters?

28 years ago today, my late-friend Alan Caruba of the National Anxiety Center asked: “Is is just coincidence that Earth Day is Lenin’s birthday?”

And as he noted: “The list of Green lies is endless.” pic.twitter.com/RI1cxWcffQ

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) April 22, 2025

*sigh*

These retards vandalize a Tesla showroom today in the name of “Earth Day” pic.twitter.com/eisP6zSL8R

— Retard Finder (@IfindRetards) April 22, 2025

Oh, yeah! I didn’t know about Lenin, and I forgot about Einhorn’s girlfriend.

They only found the poor thing because he lived on the second floor of an apartment, and what was left of her in the trunk he’d stuffed her body into began dripping down through the walls to the place below, if I remember correctly.

It was founded by and for communists and set on Vladimir Lenin’s birthday. “Earth Day” co-founder Ira Einhorn murdered and composted his girlfriend. https://t.co/Olgpi8PNuY

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) April 22, 2025

Always such stable, decent people.

Jasmine Crockett: “It’s Earth Day. Black and Brown people.” pic.twitter.com/5EzJmirKbz

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 22, 2025

Shame we’re doomed because we didn’t listen to CNN.

Unfortunately today will be our last #EarthDay https://t.co/PUBJpxYtKT

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 22, 2025

SCIENCE™ KNOWS!!!!

Hey Earth Day moron…your protest sign is made out of wood. pic.twitter.com/pwGNhnY4uj

— NotKennyRogers (@NotKennyRogers) April 22, 2025

Mother Earth doesn’t seem too bent out of shape yet, though.

Marc Morano Earth Day 2025 Statement: I have summoned my contacts and channeled a 2025 Earth Day direct message from Mother Earth herself! Here is Mother Nature’s Earth Day plea to Earth’s inhabitants:

Mother Earth: “I am smiling in 2025 because the Great Orange one, a.k.a. President Donald Trump, has improved the state of my health. Trump’s America First energy policy prioritizes readily accessible fossil fuels, which means less resource-intensive emphasis on solar, wind, and electric vehicles. 

I hope all other Western nations follow President Trump’s energy policies. I would much rather have energy production in Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States than importing energy from countries that abuse Mother Nature with lower environmental standards, not to mention lower human rights. My message is simple: Follow Trump’s lead and continue to extract fossil fuels from my bountiful reserves! Quite simply, if you poke holes in me, life-giving energy flows from me. 

Already, my vital signs are improving. Even NASA says that carbon dioxide, the gas of life that humans exhale from their mouths, is greening my body…

You can’t always get what you want.

pic.twitter.com/FK53icRzyv

— Al Kern (@AlkernS71) April 22, 2025

But you can always try to get the best out of what you’ve got.

North Korea wins #EarthDay for the 55th year in a row!

Congrats to them! pic.twitter.com/fVfhiBDTuR

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) April 22, 2025

And laugh.

In the spirit of Earth Day 2025 and the best one in years… 

…The so-called clean energy transition financed through LPO is neither clean nor affordable. It is also not focused on delivering reliable power to lead us into the future. Its underlying net-zero premise fosters degrowth and deindustrialization and locks out innovation.

President Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have rightly embraced energy realism and rejected “all-of-the-above” energy schemes. Policymakers must free the U.S. Department of Energy from Joe Biden’s policies and align the agency with the Trump administration’s goals for reliable, affordable, and secure energy.

It’s time to end Washington’s green-loan machine. We must either reform it to truly serve American energy dominance or retire it for good.

…I’d like to close with my buddy Tug Boat Phil’s ageless video, which made it to Gutfeld’s old Red-Eye some fourteen Earth Days ago.

It’s still a hoot.

Also Earth Day! pic.twitter.com/7EVRHmhDqU

— Kieran Eleison (@KieranEleison) April 22, 2024

Here’s to the greening.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!