Flotsam and Jetsam - Maryland Man Meets "Maryland Man"

From Don Surber's Highlights of the week

When last we met "my" Senator (trust me, I never cast a ballot for him), Chris Van Hollen had traveled to El Salvador to to nominally get reassurances that "Maryland Man" wife-beating MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but really for photo ops, who had been deported using the enemy Aliens act, was still alive and healthy. At NYPo, Alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia seen ‘sipping margaritas’ with Sen. Van Hollen amid El Salvador deportation battle, new photos reveal. To be fair, I don't see margaritas on the table, just water. Margaritas would probably be safer, though. Sundance at CTH, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Shares Pictures of Senator Van Hollen and MS13 Deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia Having Margaritas. "The New York Times are claiming the team around El Salvador President Nayib Bukele set up the photo-op with margaritas in order to embarrass Maryland Senator Van Hollen. Even if they did, it’s still funny." and hosts Stephen Miller Responds To Van Hollen's Trip To El Salvador To Check On Abrego Garcia and President Trump Answers Media Questions on Ukraine and MS13 Deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia. At Da Signal, ‘Looked Like a Fool’: GOP Roasts Van Hollen Over Meeting with Illegal Alien. Nice Deb at Am Great, Government Watchdog Files Ethics Complaint Against Sen. Van Hollen Over Trip to El Salvador to Meet With Alleged Gangbanger. Matt Vespa at TownHall, Trump Team Performed a Masterclass in Obliterating This Narrative About the Deported Illegal Alien. Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson "Tom Homan makes an absolute FOOL out of Kaitlan Collins on live television. She is just a walking L at this point: "2 federal judges and a Police department. said he's an MS-13 member. ICE data says he's an MS-13 member. El Salvador said he's MS-13." NewsMax, AG: Deported Migrant Owned MS-13 Rank, Street Name. Balmer Sun reports Allegations link Abrego Garcia to MS-13: Here’s what we know. Matt Vespa at TownHall, Here's When a Lefty Trump Supporter Stunned CNN When Debating That Deported Illegal Alien Case. Byron York at WaEx, Democratic passions catch fire over deported illegal immigrant. Chris Queen at PJM, Is There Any Question Which Party Is Fighting for Americans? Oilfield Rando @Oilfield_Rando, "The police can forcibly take my blood at a traffic stop and there’s a $10 billion data center in Utah spying on everything I say. The media is telling me I’ll lose my due process rights if we don’t allow a wife beating illegal alien gang member back into the US. I’m tired." Quote Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto, "The El Salvador story is less about Abrego Garcia himself than about the right to due process. The assault on Harvard is less about the school itself (there are and will be others) but attempted federal control of private universities. The assault on law firms is less aboutShow more" From Twitchy, Here Are Numbers That Indicate Democrats Should DEFINITELY Keep Simping for Criminal Illegals.

Matt Margolis, BOOM! The Trump Admin Fights Back Against Rogue Judge's Contempt Warning. "Team Trump's legal filing didn't pull any punches. It meticulously detailed how Boasberg's ruling attempts to usurp executive authority that the Supreme Court explicitly confirmed just last month. The 5-4 decision authorized these deportation flights, but apparently, left-wing district court judges think they can override the Supreme Court because “Orange man bad.”" Josh Blackmun at the Volokh Report writes "A Recipe for District Judge Supremacy." "When a district judge acts hastily, yet appellate courts are told not to "rush in," that's not a plea for judicial sobriety—it's a recipe for district judge supremacy." Capt. Ed says Hmmm: SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Challenge on Birthright Citizenship. "What does this mean? It means that at least four of the justices want to debate this case now, rather than later. But are they debating the merits of the order, or the reach of the stays?"

At NewsMax, Rubio: US May Abandon Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks Without Progress. Sundance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio Says U.S. Willing to Walk Away from Ukraine Conflict, Decision in “Days Not Weeks” and Rubio, Witkoff and Kellogg Meet with French President Macron, Ukraine and UK Delegation to Discuss Outline of Ceasefire.

From TNP, U.S. Jobless Claims Dip, Signaling Trump Labor Market Remains Strong. At Da Mail, Trump hits record high approval rating amid tariff turmoil. Hat Hair's Beege Welborn comments It's amazing how the American people, contrary to the hysterics in the press, can be mature enough to know things don't happen overnight. And sometimes there's even a little pain before a gain." NewsWeek whines Japan Cautious as Trump Hails 'Big Progress' in Key Test of Tariffs. Hat Hair's Dave Strom thinks China Is In Much Deeper Trouble Than Most Realize and explains How Transnationalists Think. At NewsMax, Trump Signals Tit-for-Tat China Tariffs May Be Near End.

Jeff Charles at TownHall reports You Weren't Supposed to Know About This Biden-Era Program – But Tulsi Gabbard Just Blew it Wide Open. Matt Margolis, Tulsi Exposes a Terrifying Biden-Era Program That Was Meant To Be Secret. At Da Caller, ‘Ghost Guns’ And ‘Hate Crime’: Tulsi Gabbard Declassifies Biden Admin Docs Targeting ‘Domestic Terrorism’. Sundance, DNI Tulsi Gabbard Releases Declassified Files of RFK and Biden Domestic Terrorism Plan. Dave Strom chortles Perfect: COVID.gov Now Goes to Page Debunking 'Proximal Origins' Paper, Trashing Fauci. 

From NewsMax, Giuliani to Newsmax: Situation 'Pretty Hard' for AG James.

The very picture of health

At Am Mind, Jeff Anderson wonders Is DOGE Enough? Probably not, but it's a start on a problem no other administration has touched. Ace hears CNN: Trump and Musk Murdered a Federal Worker By Worrying Her With DOGE Cuts Until She Had a Heart Attack, "You've got to be ****ing kidding me with this sh** now, CNN. You cannot be serious. You simply cannot be. I know what you're thinking -- this bureaucrat was probably in terrific shape, which means that the heart attack was caused not by 50+ years of unhealthy living but just by Trump's and Musk's nefarious plotting. And you're absolutely right -- she was an original member of the George Floyd Memorial Crossfit Center." NYPo reports a Tim Walz state employee allegedly caused $20K in damage vandalizing Teslas — weeks after governor mocked automaker’s stock prices. Dave Strom, Minnesota State Government Analyst Arrested for Vandalizing Teslas. "Well, when the governor gives the green light to go out and commit crimes for political purposes, it's not surprising that one of the 37,000 people working for him will happily do so." Dustin Grage @GrageDustin, "BREAKING: The man seen vandalizing a Tesla has been ID’d as 33-year-old Dylan Bryan Adams. He’s accused of causing $20K+ in damages across the Twin Cities. The kicker: Adams works as a Fiscal Policy Analyst for the State of Minnesota. Someone took Tim Walz’s words to heart."

The best endorsement money can buy at the Free Bacon, LeBron James Endorsed Kamala Harris. Then She Paid His Company $50K. Ace, Vice Chair of the DNC David Hogg: I'm Really Fighting for the Great Progressive Cause So If You See Some Sick Scandalous Claims Made Against Me, That's Just My Enemies Trying to Stop My Crusade for Justice, "Shyeah, okay. What did you do, David? What did you do?," and Minnesota AG and Islamist Keith Ellison Is Distancing Himself from a Fake "Charity" That Stole $250 Million in Covid Funds, Supposedly for Feeding Poor Children, "His grubby fingerprints are all over this, says David Strom," and The Self-Declared "Party of Science:" We Don't Want to Know Why Autism Rates Have Increased 1300% Over the Past 50 Years, Bigots, "RFKJr. talked about the skyrocketing rates of autism in children -- now 1 in 31 kids are autistic. The numbers are worse for boys: 1 in 20 boys are autistic. In California, that number is 1 in 12.5, or about 8%. RFKJr. wants to find out why 5% of our boys are now autistic (or 8% in California):" Twitchy want you to WATCH a Legit INSANE Lefty Woman Screams at MAGA Hat Wearing Man In a Restaurant (and Check Out Her Shirt). Alex Bradford @BadMoneyBrad "The irony is that she is wearing a Luigi Mangione as Jesus shirt during Holy Week, a man that murdered a father of two." Andy Palmer at Spec World speculates on Luigi Mangione and the left’s warped choice of heroes. "The Trump ‘resistance’ seems determined to lose." Dave Strom examines The Liberal Ratchet, "It has been an iron law in American politics that, no matter what the electorate wants, our politics only has two speeds: a rush to the left and then a period of the left consolidating their gains."

The Peacock reports Google hit with second antitrust blow, adding to concerns about future of ads business. "On Thursday, a federal judge ruled Google held illegal monopolies in online advertising markets due to its position between ad buyers and sellers." Well, it does.

Ace announces DHS Secretary Noem Announces the Freezing of $2.7 Million in Grants to Harvard, "I know I've reported that this was in the offing, but this makes it official. These new cuts are in addition to the $2.2 billion (with a b) that Trump already froze." At Campus Reform, Harvard finds wingtip on the other foot as Trump moves to revoke its tax-exempt status. John MacGhilionn at Am Spec explains The Fall of Harvard: How America’s Oldest University Became Its Most Expensive Liability, "Harvard’s leaders now prioritize activism over academics and show greater loyalty to foreign interests than their own government and students." The Great Victor Davis Hanson at Am Great wonders Will Harvard Go Full Hillsdale? "Harvard risks $2.2B in federal funds as it defies anti-discrimination mandates, drawing comparisons to Hillsdale's stand-alone model of rejecting government strings." At Althouse, "We have now seen that the Trump administration manages the economy with the same expertise and competence it manages higher education, and as a result we might begin to rally the American people." "I'm reading "I’m a Columbia Professor. Here’s the Really Disheartening Part of This Mess," a NYT op-ed by Matthew Connelly, a Columbia history professor. I'm all for expertise and competence, but who is this "we" threatening to "rally" us in the name of longing for expertise and competence?"

Hollywood in Toto, Why the Left Self-Censors in Trump 2.0 Era, "Hollywood free speech warriors can't stop erasing their own projects, ideas." At the Free Bacon, WATCH: From Trees to White Women, Everything Is Racist in These PBS Documentaries. 

Ace, "Journalist" Gayle King Thinks She's an Astronaut Now, Attacks Sexism for Denying Her Credit. "Some of you are probably tired of this story. I'm not. I'm just getting warmed up. This energizes me. But I do know this is now three days old so I'll only have this post up for 40 minutes before I post another one. "Journalist" Gayle King is now also an "astronaut," the talentless, corrupt hanger-on now claims." Insty cites DON SURBER: Did Katy Perry just kill feminism? "“The 6 celebrities followed Freedom 7’s course? So what? You can retrace the route of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria but that doesn’t make you Christopher Columbus.” The Internet mockery has been extreme: But efforts at stolen astronaut glamour notwithstanding, the real achievement is in fact that space travel has progressed to the point where you don’t have to be Alan Shepherd or John Glenn to fly in space: You can just be a passenger. Kind of like it’s a sign that air travel has advanced that you don’t have to be Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic. These women flew in space because they’re famous. Alan Shepherd was famous because he flew in space. It’s not the same, but that’s okay." 

Order-Order reports Supreme Court Rules A Woman is a Biological Female, in the UK.  

KORNACKI: "We see this - white women with a college degree. The only group of white voters that is on the left... do you want to continue DEI programs or do you think they should be ended? White men, no degree? End it. White men with a degree? End it, they say. White women no… pic.twitter.com/l1Pm1wh8J1

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 18, 2025

Lots of unused links at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.17.25 (Afternoon Edition), In The Mailbox: 04.17.25 (Evening Edition) and In The Mailbox: 04.18.25. 

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Happy Easter and links. The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: The Cost of Victory up on time and under budget at The Other McCain.