Flotsam and Jetsam - Chicks in Space!

But first, more important things. At Fox Business, Stocks move higher on some tariff relief for electronics. Sundance at CTH hosts Stephen Miller Reiterating Tariff Strategy Around Section 232 National Security Products, NEC Director Kevin Hassett Outlines Details of Global Tariff Strategy and notes Chairman Xi Jinping Pressures Hedge Position in Vietnam with Increased Trade Agreements. From ET, Trump Says Semiconductor Tariffs Coming Soon, "The president said that the entire electronics supply chain would be examined as part of what he called a national security tariff investigation." From Insty, TARIFFS ARE GOING TO BE A REAL PROBLEM FOR THEM: Mark Simon @MarkSimonHK, " This is from @BrookingsInst - Not MAGA or @POTUS CCP is flooding world markets with subsidized goods. This is how Xi fights for survival." Quote Robin Brooks @robin_j_brooks, "China's global trade surplus in the first 3 months of 2025 reached a stunning $273 bn. That's an order of magnitude higher than any previous surplus in the first 3 months of the year. China is very clearly at the root of major imbalances in global trade, which need to be fixed..." Mark Simon thinks Trump’s Challenge to Xi May be the Entire Story “Everyone has a plan until you get punched the face.” Derek at Flopping Aces calls it Trump’s Masterstroke: How He’s Quietly Strangling China’s Economy. From NewsMax, Taiwan President: 1st Phase of US Tariff Talks 'Smooth.' TNP reports Canada Commits to U.S. Trade Talks, Leaving China as Last Major Holdout.  Roger Kimball at Spec World says What the left calls ‘chaos,’ the rest of us call ‘winning’. "One by one, countries line up to make a deal with the world’s largest economy." Jeremy Frankel at TownHall links After Trump Tariff Pledge, Swiss Pharma Company Announces $23 Billion Investment in US. At Da Caller, ‘Companies Will Bring Work Back’: UAW President Defends Trump Tariffs In Verbal Slugfest With Befuddled MSNBC Hosts. Jeffrey A Tucker @jeffreyatucker "I'm trying to understand NYT economics. How can what's good for the US be an obvious disaster for Europe?" Newt Gingrich warns Americans, Not Government, Must Benefit from Trump’s Tariffs. Leslie Eastman at LI reports Trump Withdraws US From International Maritime Organization’s “Decarbonization” Negotiations. "If the IMO persists in its Net Zero insanity, it will sail into the FO phase of the FAFO cycle." Jeff Charles, Sen. Lie-a-watha Demands Investigation Into Trump Administration. Wait Until You Hear Why. Insider trading during the tariff flip flops. 

Jeff Charles at TownHall hears Trump Goes Off on 'Crooked' Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky Over Ukraine War  From Space.com, Russia and China are threatening SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation, new report finds.

Virginia Kruta at Da Wire reports Trump Swipes At Biden After Annual Physical: ‘I Got Every Answer Right’. Sundance notes White House Releases Results of President Trump Physical Examination. "I felt I was in very good shape — good heart, a good soul, very good soul." Jess Fields @jessalanfields "America is healing! Latest Harvard Harris poll shows OVERWHELMING support for Trump policies: 74% for deporting illegals 70% for closing the border 69% for DOGE 65% to ban trans men from girl sports 57% for ending foreign aid 57% for reciprocal tariffs 53% for Alaska drilling." PJM's Stephen Kruiser says Butter, Meet Hot Knife — Trump Keeps Cutting Through Media's TDS Noise. From WUWT, Trump EPA Reportedly Axing Obama-Era Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure Rule. Am Mil News reports Trump admin orders major increase in logging after wildfire disasters. 

At Red State, Ward Clark reports DOGE Has a New Portal for the Airing of Grievances. From Drew Berquist, Elon Musk Trolls the Media as He’s Lays Out Uncovered Waste During Cabinet Meeting. Politico tries to make trouble, Navarro denies clash with Musk over tariffs "The special adviser to Trump called Navarro “a moron” last week." Misty Severi at JTN, White House to ask Congress to trim $9 billion from budget, including cuts to USAID and PBS, "The full rescission package is expected to be formally presented to Congress when it returns from its Easter recess on April 28." US News, White House Proposes Drastic Cuts to State Department and Funding for UN, NATO and Other Groups. From LifeZette, Harvard Professors Try Blocking Audit Into Billions in Government Grants. Insty at his NYPo gig explains How Democrats used NGOs to end-run voters: A ‘parallel government.’ DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "New tool in the works! Today I've been deep in the guts of something ambitious: a system to cross-check Form 990 data, audit reports, and federal spending to flag when an org’s stated purpose doesn’t match where the money’s actually going. Here’s how it’s coming together: Scraped audit metadata by EIN from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. Pulled all audit PDFs for every tax year. Extracted Program III, Schedule O, and mission statements from 990s. Identified all candidate FAINs from those audits.. Matching real award IDs in the USASpending database via UEIs/FAINs (tonight). Using AI to surface discrepancies between award descriptions and 990 claims (tomorrow). Publishing the tool (also tomorrow). We’ve already spot-checked a few orgs where the federal grant descriptions either don’t match anything in the 990… or wildly exceed what the org claims to have done. This might be the first large-scale "hey, here's where DOGE should dig deeper" tool. Coming soon"  Bob Spencer at PJM claims 'Mississippi Musk' Finds $400 Million in State Government Waste.

Sarah Anderson at PJM sees Trump Meets with Nayib Bukele, Destroys Fake News. Teri Christoph at RedState observes Trump and Bukele Torch CNN's Kaitlan Collins in Oval Office Showdown Over Deported MS-13 Gangbanger. Sundance hosts President Trump Welcoming El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to the White House – Video. Matt Vespa at TownHall, Did You See Everyone Pile on CNN in the Oval Office Today? Townhall.com @townhallcom "El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele tells reporters he will NOT return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the U.S. "Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous...You want us to go back to releasing criminals?...That's not going to happen." Ryan King at NYPo, El Salvador president says deported Maryland man with alleged MS-13 ties can’t be brought back to US despite Supreme Court ruling: ‘Question is preposterous.’ James Lynch at NRO, El Salvador’s President Bukele Says He Will Not Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to U.S. Althouse, "The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States." ""I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere and you want us to go back into releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That’s not going to happen." Said El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, quoted in "El Salvador President Nayib Bukele says he won’t return Abrego Garcia to U.S." (CNBC)." Don Surber, No, CBS, Maryland is not part of El Salvador, "In the 21st century, illegal aliens have more rights than a citizen." Vicky Taft at PJM, Do You Know Why the Beatified MS-13 'Maryland Father' Was 'Mistakenly' Deported? An illegal alien with a deportation order all ready? Twitchy sees Scott Jennings Stomps on Dem Fantasy an Illegal Alien Deported to El Salvador Will Return a U.S. Citizen. Matt Vespa again, CNN's Scott Jennings Drops a Key Fact About the Deported Illegal Alien Case…and Libs Won't Like It. Jeremy Redfern @JeremyRedfernFL "Let’s flip this around, Chuck: If a US citizen was sent to the US by El Salvador, and El Salvador asked for the return of that US citizen, should we send him back to El Salvador?" Quote Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer, "President Bukele’s comment today is pure nonsense. The law is clear, due process was grossly violated, and the Supreme Court has clearly spoken that the Trump administration must facilitate and effectuate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He should be returned to the U.S.Show more"

BLOWTORCH: Scott Jennings ANNIHILATES Democrat Panel Defending MS-13 Gang Member

CNN seriously tried to argue that an illegal alien MS-13 member—accused of human trafficking—should be brought back into the U.S.

That’s when @ScottJenningsKY stepped in—and lit the whole argument… pic.twitter.com/ZlGMymUIbR

— Overton (@overton_news) April 15, 2025

Joe Cunningham at RedState, Another Federal Court Blocks Trump's Immigration Agenda in Nationwide Ruling—Without Calling It That "The judge, in an emergency ruling issued April 14, ruled that DHS "likely" acted unlawfully by issuing blanket revocations of lawful parole, rather than reviewing cases individually—as required by statute. DHS had argued it needed to terminate the parole in bulk to facilitate faster removals, but the court rejected that reasoning, saying nothing in the immigration statute permits cutting off parole early without case-by-case review. . . . As a result, the judge: Blocked DHS from enforcing the March 25 termination policy, Prohibited any attempt to revoke CHNV work permits tied to that parole, Barred the government from proceeding with removals based solely on that policy. . . . Interestingly, the court went out of its way to avoid the political landmine of issuing what it called a “nationwide injunction.” Instead, the judge certified a national class—everyone still in the U.S. under CHNV parole—and applied the ruling to that group. It seems a clever bit of legal footwork. Technically, this is a class-action injunction, not a nationwide one. But the practical result is the same: the government is now barred from applying this policy anywhere in the country, to anyone still covered by the CHNV program."

Hat Hair's Duane Patterson sees Anti-Semitism On Passover In Pennsylvania. Mary Chastain at LI, Police: Arson Suspect Admitted ‘Harboring Hatred’ Toward Gov. Shapiro. "The police also said that an ex-girlfriend of Balmer contacted the police. She claimed Balmer confessed to committing the fire and wanted her to turn him in to the police." But why does he hate Shapiro? VodkaPundit at PJM says So a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Normalizing Political Assassinations... starring Taylor Lorenz. 

Jeff Charles at TownHall reports Trump Just Napalmed 'Wacky Crook' Who Tried to Weaponize the Justice System Against Him, Letitia James. From Da Fetched, Senior FBI Official Tied to FISA Abuse and Hunter Biden Cover-Up Suspended. "Brian Auten, who was suspended under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel, played a central role in the FBI’s counterintelligence Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election." 

Musings from an Angry Webmaster finds a Report that claims that criminal gang Tren de Aragua is an actual foreign militia. Buck Throckmorton@BuckThrockmort, "Democrats will never forgive Laken Riley for being murdered by one of their precious illegal aliens. They still consider Laken’s murderer to be the true victim." ABC 7 News (Chicago), Chicago Cinco de Mayo Parade canceled over Trump immigration policy fears, organizers say.

Matt Margolis, Now We Know Why Democrats Are Losing the Messaging War. NewsBusters finds On NBC, Boston Globester Bombast: Democrats Should Cry 'Autocracy' from the Mountaintops! John Solomon and Steve Richards, While publicly rebuking Russia, Joe Biden opened 2014 back door for Moscow gas to flow to Ukraine ""Critical moment:" Timing of fall 2014 overture came as son's Burisma firm fretted it could be blamed for price spike without Russian help. Documents show as vice president, Joe Biden helped protect his son's interests." Sarah at Insty, IT’S A BIG CHALLENGE FOR THOSE TWO BRAIN CELLS: Kamala Harris Is Still Thinking About Her Political Future.

Atop Da Hill whines that AP says journalists blocked from Oval Office after judge’s order. NewsMax cites Trump: CBS, '60 Minutes' Attacks 'Unlawful, Illegal'. Matt Margolis, Say What? CNN Claims Only the Right Has an 'Extremism Problem'.

Space.com, Katy Perry and Gayle King launch to space with 4 others on historic all-female Blue Origin rocket flight. Jawad Iqbal at The Spec claims Blue Origin’s all-female space flight was a step backwards for feminism. ‘Look at the moon…Look at the Earth…wow,’ could be heard over the radio link. It is not exactly profound stuff. The mission? To float about – weightlessly and aimlessly – in space for a total of three minutes before returning to Earth." Beege Welborn at Hat Hair examines The Tao of AOC and Space Vixens " Normally, taking some women in skin tight spandex, pretending they're 'astronauts' going into 'space' as a 'rocket ship crew' would make for a laughably entertaining movie. Schmaybe shades of Galaxy Quest if any of the chicas were as adept at humor as Sigourney Weaver and the writers anywhere near as polished."

A lot of people are dunking on this supposed commercialized stunt, but there isn't a single guy on this entire planet who doesn't want to launch 6 women he knows into outer space. https://t.co/XtEG4WlwM2

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 14, 2025

NewsBusters, WOKE. IN. SPACE! CBS Host Apologizes for Saying ‘Mankind’: ‘I’m Sorry. I'm Sorry’

Misty Severi, Trump admin freezes billions in federal funding for Harvard, after Ivy League refuses to comply. "The joint task force slammed Harvard's decision in a statement, arguing it was evidence that the university was not serious about its commitment to combat antisemitism."  At WJ, Another Elite University Finds Out Trump Wasn't Joking and Loses $4 Million in Funding. Robby Soave at Reason explains, How Obama and Biden Paved the Way for Trump's Attacks on Universities. ""Universities were bending over for federal funds long before Trump," writes Laura Kipnis." He who pays the piper calls the tune. 

VodkaPundit at PJM notices Ford Has a 'Chief Learning Officer,' and He's Exactly What You'd Expect. Kurt Schlichter at TownHall thinks The Pentagon Must Go on the Offensive to Defeat Politicized Officers

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair cites Ken Paxton: Why Are Dems So Determined to Force Women to Compete Against Males?

The Wombat has Rule Five Sunday: Bunny Season! and FMJRA 2.0: No Grandeur, Lots of Misery, Just One Victory awaiting your attention at The Other McCain.